Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant planning that is expected to be a blockbuster share sale, has made a proposal to the Hong Kong stock exchange that would allow the company’s partners to nominate the majority of its board members, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
Alibaba, which analysts expect could be valued at $100 billion or more in an initial public offering, made the proposal as it seeks ways for top executives to retain their sway over corporate strategy while it weighs the merits of a listing in Hong Kong or the United States, the person said, declining to be identified because the information was not public.
Both the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange permit companies to issue more than one class of shares, which can allow founders or management to exert disproportionate control over a company by increasing the voting rights of the shares they hold. The U.S.-listed Internet companies Facebook and Google have dual-class listings, while some family-controlled companies, including The New York Times Co., also use the structure.
Hong Kong, however, discourages dual-class listings. For example, the English soccer club Manchester United had explored a Hong Kong I.P.O. but ultimately chose to list last year in New York, where it was able to issue two classes of shares.
Alibaba’s proposal to the Hong Kong exchange would see the nominations for the majority of its board seats be made by a committee of more than 20 partners, including the co-founder and executive chairman Jack Ma, top lieutenants and other long-serving senior staff members, according to the person.
The partner committee would not include SoftBank, the Japanese telecommunications company that owns 36.7 percent of Alibaba, or Yahoo, which has a 24 percent stake.
The proposal “still gets to the heart of some of the issues that cause people to go dual-class, but it would still be single-class,†said the person, adding that any board nominations made by the partners would still be subject to the approval of shareholders.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong stock exchange declined to comment.
News of Alibaba’s proposal was earlier reported on Friday by the Hong Kong Economic Times newspaper.
Alibaba has yet to appoint underwriters or to decide where it will list, according to the person familiar with the matter, but analysts and investors already expect the I.P.O. to be one of the biggest and most highly anticipated since Facebook raised $16 billion in May of 2012.
Alibaba operates online businesses including the merchandise sourcing Web site Alibaba.com; Tmall.com, a platform for retailers to connect with online shoppers; and the consumer-to-consumer retail Web site Taobao Marketplace.
Alibaba’s profit tripled in the first quarter of the year, rising to $668.7 million from $220.5 million in the same period a year earlier, according to Yahoo’s stock exchange filings. Quarterly revenue increased to $1.38 billion, up 72 percent from a year earlier.
