In what could be the largest stock listing in U.S. history, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding filed papers Friday seeking to raise more than $21 billion in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange later this month.
The company’s prospectus also reveals a lucrative payday for its outside lawyers, listing $15.775 million in legal fees and expenses, according to an F-1 filing made late Friday by the Hong Kong-based company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The size of Alibaba’s IPO would make it the largest in the U.S. since Visa, the world biggest consumer payments company, raised $18 billion in a public listing despite the beginning of the abrupt economic downturn of 2008.
