Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning a record 24.3-billion-dollar debut on the US stock market, according to a posting from the Securities Exchange Commission on Friday, according to dpa.
The company, which aims to rival Amazon.com and eBay for global sales, plans to offer 320 million shares sometime this month at a price between 60 and 66 dollars.
Since it will be offering only a part of its company in the stock
sale, those initial public offering (IPO) prices would give the company a total market value of 163 billion dollars.
In comparison, Apple is the highest valued company in the world at 592 billion dollars.
Alibaba's initial IPO, even at the lower share price, would edge out Visa Incorporated's 19.65-billion-dollar IPO as the largest in US history, according to Bloomberg financial news agency.
Alibaba has aleady started recruiting vendors for its 11Main.com -
its planned US-based shopping portal. Alibaba currently serves the US market through its global portal Alibaba.com.