China's leading e-commerce site, Alibaba Group has said that it is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) at a U. S. stock exchange instead of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Alibaba Group is aiming to raise up to $15 billion in the biggest initial public offering since Facebook. The company announced its decision to get listed in the US, following uncertainty over an initial public offering in Hong Kong. Alibaba Group Holding has said that it has concluded talks with the Hong Kong stock exchange without success.

Co-founder and Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai of the company criticised the Hong Kong stock exchange for the failure of talks and said that the stock exchange must adapt to new trends and changes. The Hong Kong stock exchange was the first choice for an IPO for the company but the company did not get an approval because the stock exchange did not agree to a company proposal to allow its partners to nominate a majority of the board.

Hong Kongs exchange does not allow IPOs with different classes of shares that allow partners to have complete control over the board. Tsai said Alibaba is not applying for dual-class structure and said that the partnership agreement is in-line with the long term interest of the company. According to estimates, China's largest e-commerce company could be valued at as much as $120 billion making it the third largest Internet company behind Google Inc. and Amazon. com.