CICC and Credit Suisse to lead Alibaba Hong Kong IPO

Alibaba, one of Amazon's biggest global competitors and one of the biggest online marketplaces, has selected China International Credit Corp. and Credit Suisse to lead their initial public offering. The news was reported by Business of Fashion.

Alibaba is in talks with other investment banks to be part of the IPO, but the specifics of which have not been disclosed. In the next few weeks Alibaba plans on filing an official listing with Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Although Alibaba hasn't set a specific fundraising ticket for their IPO, sources say that they are expecting to raise 20 billion dollars, which would make it the largest share sale in Hong Kong since 2010. There is still much at stake here as the details of the IPO are in the very early stages.

This would mark the second time that Credit Suisse has worked with Alibaba on an IPO. The company was the force behind Alibaba's U.S. IPO, which raised 25 billion dollars for the company.

However, as Fortune pointed out late last month, U.S.-China relations aren't exactly at their best thanks to Donald Trump. Trump's escalating trade war with China is not doing international business any favors. The New York Times reported that trade hawks are advising Trump to curb China's access to Wall Street to force the country to bend to his demands. If Alibaba's IPO goes as well in China as it did in the U.S. it might cause Chinese companies to retreat from Wall Street and focus on their domestic capabilities, which wouldn't do the U.S. stock exchange any favors.