ICM Predict Alibaba IPO As The Largest Ever

March 7, 2014 - PRLog -- As the company controls 80% of China's online retail market it has been estimated that it could be worth as much as $150 billion so, potentially, should it progress to an Initial Public Offering, it could generate far more capital than Facebook did in 2012.

"Alibaba operates on China's leading online payment system, Alipay, and is the world's largest mobile payment service, which last year reached a total volume of $150 billion. Furthermore it has over 100 million registered mobile users and in 2013 completed more than 2.78 billion transactions thereby surpassing the combined volume of PayPal and Square Inc. eBay's PayPal generated a mere $27 billion in transaction volume last year by comparison," said a source close to International Capital Markets.

"Such an opportunity to get involved with such a company prior to the IPO – which, incidentally would place Alibaba just behind Google as the highest value internet company in the world, beating both Amazon and Facebook – is why we seek venture capital, and why we source growth companies at their seed stage of development" commented Jeremy Mullins, a representative from ICM.

"Growth rates for China's e-commerce sector are looking very positive and this will be the largest listing in the world since Facebook in 2012. It has been branching out beyond China's borders and has entered the US market with the launch of the 11 Main website that sells luxury fashion, tech and jewellery products."

Some time following Twitter's IPO it is expected that billionaire Jack Ma, one of the founders of the firm and Executive Chairman, will announce itself to the world in New York. The company expects to triple the volume of transactions to around $490 billion in two years' time and is expected to overtake Wal-Mart as the world's biggest retail network.

Alibaba has enjoyed robust growth of late and the company posted a net profit in the quarter to December 2013 of $642.2 million, nearly tripling from a year earlier. Its revenues have soared by 80 per cent from the previous year. There have been plenty of red-hot IPOs on Wall Street, with excitement all around for the impending IPO of Twitter, but this is far bigger and will dwarf Twitter both in size and profitability.

"The big banks are lining up to lend money to Alibaba in the hope of getting picked as the underwriter in its initial public offering. It has been mooted that the IPO could take place as early as in the fourth quarter this year, but the early months of 2015 are probably more likely," concluded Jeremy Mullins from International Capital Markets.

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International Capital Markets http://www.internationalcapitalmarkets.com is a leading global alternative investment manager, offering value-oriented investors in private equity and seed stage venture capital.