Chinese online retail giant Alibaba may list its business in New York as part of an attempt to balance its business in favour of management control over investors.
According to the Financial Times newspaper today, the Alibaba Partnership, led by 20 senior executives, want to ensure the board maintain control of the direction of the business as it prepares for a $60 billion stock exchange listing. They want to be able to appoint a majority of board members in order to do so.
The Financial Times says that would allow the Partnership 'to ensure that in difficult times investors will not be able to derail the company from its chosen path.'
The tussle for control ahead of a listing could mean Alibaba chooses New York over Hong Kong, where a fight is brewing as some seek to defend the principles of investor protection.
But both sides could end up regretting a New York listing, says the FT, where executives would face responsibilities far from home and the nerve centre of the business. It would also tie them into 'an accounting environment that demands high and voluminous disclosure on a quarterly basis'.
In turn, Hong Kong could lose the largest and most high profile listing since insurance group AIA, it said.
The FT says: 'For China too, the outcome would be difficult to bear. That is not only because one of its most successful private enterprises would be making its financial home elsewhere, but also because Alibaba has become the single most important repository of pricing and consumer information in the economy. If China wants to understand inflation, it often looks to Alibaba.'
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