CRI听力:Alibaba Kicks off Asia Road Show in Hong Kong

Alibaba has begun an IPO road show here in Asia ahead of its public listing in New York later on this week.

CRI's Hong Kong correspondent Li Jing has more.

Speaking ahead of a luncheon with institutional investors in Hong Kong, Alibaba Group Executive Chairman and Founder Jack Ma says even though his company is not listed in Hong Kong, he will continue to invest here.

"People say that Hong Kong lost Alibaba deal, but to me, I think Alibaba missed this great opportunity to be listed in Hong Kong. Maybe it's wrong time, because our incapable of communicating with Hong Kong. What we want to do in the future is try to give more Hong Kong small business opportunities and create opportunities for young people in Hong Kong to develop their career in China and in the world. "

Alibaba had originally sought permission to list in Hong Kong with its existing partnership committee, a group of 27 founders, executives and other individuals that has the power to nominate a majority of the company's directors.

But the Hong Kong exchange refused to change its "one share, one vote" principle that underlies its listing rules, which have no place for weighted voting rights.

Jack Ma says he respects all decisions made by Hong Kong exchange.

"I totally understand and I fully support that Hong Kong exchange should not change its rules for one company. But Hong Kong has to change for its future and its young people, because the world is changing. "

Recently, the Hong Kong exchange is seeking public views about weighted voting rights, including multiclass share structures which is common in the US among technology companies like Facebook or Google.

It gives some shareholders a disproportionate say when it comes to voting matters.

Reports say that Alibaba already has sufficient demand to complete the deal in the current price range $60 to $66 US dollars per share, after a week of investors' meetings that started in New York last week.

Alibaba is expected to raise over 20 billion US dollars when it goes public in the United States later this week, making it the largest IPO in history.

Founded in 1999, Alibaba hosts a group of e-commerce businesses. Taobao and Tmall, just two of its B2B portals handled 248 billion US dollars in transactions last year, larger than Amazon and eBay combined.

For CRI, this is Li Jing in Hong Kong.