Alibaba announces IPO price range before listing in NYC

People play in a hall inside Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, April 23, 2014. [File Photo/China Daily & Agencies]

Alibaba Group Holding Limited Friday disclosed its initial public offering (IPO) price range for the first time, which stood between 60 US dollars and 66 dollars.

According to its amended filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Alibaba will offer a total of 320 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), taking the whole size of the IPO to approximately 20 billion dollars.

The IPO would be the largest in US IPO history, exceeding the 18-billion-dollar initial offering of Visa Inc. in 2008.

The price range is considered conservative by some analysts. However, Alibaba still can lift the final offering price above the current range.

Alibaba submitted IPO filings to the SEC on May 6, and it has been approved to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "BABA" .

Recent media reports quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying that Alibaba would start roadshow in early September and then conduct IPO as soon as mid-September.

The company plans to issue 123 million ADSs, while the selling shareholders including Yahoo, one of its principal shareholders, executive chairman Jack Ma, and executive vice chairman Joe Tsai are offering a total of 197 million ADSs.

In addition, Alibaba, Yahoo, Ma and Tsai have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an aggregate of 48,015,900 additional ADSs.