Alibaba seeks to control via partnership
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, September 11, 2013
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's largest e-commerce company, sees a partnership structure as the best way to allow its partners to retain control over the board after listing.
Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder and chairman, said a partnership system is the best way to protect the company's value and ensure it sticks to its mission to stay competitive and innovative, according to an e-mail statement to employees.
"We are not concerned about where to go public, but we do care that the place we choose to go public must support this type of open, innovative, responsible culture that values long-term development," Ma said in the open letter to employees yesterday.
Alibaba has asked the Hong Kong stock exchange to allow a partnership to nominate a majority of board members, Bloomberg News reported last month, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter. That would enable Ma and his management team to maintain control after an initial public offering.
Hong Kong doesn't allow new listings to have dual-class shares, but the partnership structure will be able to circumvent such obstacles and keep key decisions with its partners by giving the company, made up of 28 partners, the right to nominate a majority of its board.
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