Alibaba's Jack Ma refutes rumours of migrating to Hong Kong

Jack Ma, the founder of China's pioneering e-commerce firm Alibaba and one of the country's richest man, has refuted reports of migrating to Hong Kong after the firm's initial public offering (IPO) in New York.
Ma, 49, is expected to become China's richest man after the offering this week.
Spiking online rumours, he said he has no plans to emigrate to Hong Kong, a former British colony now under Chinese sovereignty.
"I never thought I would emigrate anywhere. I was born in Hangzhou, studied in Hangzhou and started my business in Hangzhou," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

His denial followed reports that most of the 300 Chinese billionaires wanted to migrate.
Ma said he has always been a Hangzhou resident and he has not planned to change his status in the past, at present or in the future.

Ma founded Alibaba in 1999 in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
Alibaba is set to raise more than USD 20 billion through its IPO, the largest ever in US history.
Alibaba began its roadshow last week and kicked off its Asian roadshows in Hong Kong on Monday.
The company is expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange as early as Friday.

Meanwhile, Chinese investors are disappointed in the country's lukewarm stock market losing another potentially high-quality stock as Alibaba prepares for its big debut.
Investors blame cumbersome rules, such as banning companies registered overseas from listing in China and retaining lengthy listing procedures, for forcing competitive domestic firms like Alibaba to list abroad.
Other notable companies listing abroad for similar reasons include instant messaging service provider Tencent, search engine giant Baidu and the country's top 10 Internet firms ranging from Sina to Sohu, a Xinhua report said.
China will lose more innovative firms like Alibaba if it retains the approval-based stock regulation system, which selects IPO applicants based on records of financial data and restricts ownership structure in line with share proportions, said Qiu Yanying, an investment officer for China Fortune Securities Co. Ltd.

On Monday, Alibaba raised its initial offering share price to USD 68 and is on the verge of making the world's largest IPO on Friday.
More than 200 companies are currently queueing for approval to be listed on Shenzhen's start-up board, which has ambitions to become China's Nasdaq-style board.