ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd. seeks to raise more than US$21 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) that will value the Chinese e-commerce giant at up to US$163 billion and rank as the largest-ever technology debut in the United States.

    Alibaba expects to price its initial public offering between US$60 and US$66 per American Depository Share, valuing the company at about US$162.69 billion at the top end of the range and raising a maximum of US$21.1 billion.

    The company, founded by former English schoolteacher Jack Ma, will decide on its final price after a globe-spanning roadshow that will kick off in New York on Monday, and is expected to stop in cities from Hong Kong to San Francisco.

    If all goes well, Alibaba may ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange in as little as two weeks.

    Industry analysts had expected Alibaba to try for a valuation in excess of US$200 billion, ranking the Chinese company among the 20 largest publicly traded companies in the United States. It may eventually price above the initial range, should it deem investor demand sufficient.

    Many investors are eager to buy a piece of a Chinese company that handles more e-commerce than Amazon.com Inc. and eBay combined.

    “This number may seem enormous, but when you look at the value compared with the company’s fundamentals, it’s not as rich as we might expect,” said Brian Hamilton, chairman of private company analysis firm Sageworks.

    But some investors remain cautious about the potential conflicts of interest between Ma’s role as a steward of the company, and his investment interests elsewhere.

    The company has also attracted its share of controversy in the past, as when it hived off lucrative payments unit Alipay, triggering objections from major shareholders Yahoo and Softbank.

    The company said in its latest prospectus that it has racked up almost US$16 million in IPO-related legal fees, unusually high for an IPO and an indication of the effort that Alibaba and its advisers have undertaken to prepare a complicated prospectus.

    “When an Internet firm of our scale that originated from China enters the global scene, you should expect that it will encounter skepticism from different directions due to differences in cultural perspectives, values and even geopolitical positioning,” Ma said. (SD-Agencies)