Alibaba plans stock split as it preps giant listing

[HONG KONG] Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans a one-to-eight share split, as the e-commerce giant prepares for a stock sale that could be Hong Kong's largest since 2010.

China's largest company is proposing to increase the number of ordinary shares eight-fold to 32 billion, it said in a statement. The proposal will be discussed and put to a vote at its annual general meeting in Hong Kong on July 15. If approved, the split should take place no later than July 2020.

Alibaba is said to have filed for a listing in Hong Kong last week via a confidential exchange application. That sale of stock, which could raise as much as US$20 billion, replenishes the online retailer's war-chest and helps it attract investors closer to home as tensions between China and the US escalate.

In the Hong Kong offering, the company will seek to preserve its governance system, where a partnership of top executives has rights including the ability to nominate a majority of board members, a person familiar with the matter has said. It's possible also that the company may not need to seek a waiver, as the city's listing rules allow some Chinese issuers who have already listed on an established international bourse to keep their existing structures in a secondary listing.

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