DealBook: Alibaba Markets 1ts Shares in Hong Kong, a City That Turned Away the 1.P.0.

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HONG KONG — Alibaba's executives put on the charm to woo investors in Hong Kong, the city where the e-commerce giant originally hoped to list, as part of the marketing roadshow for their company's huge initial public offering in New York.

A year earlier, Alibaba had abandoned plans for a Hong Kong I.P.O. after local regulators declined to sign off on its voting structure, which allows Alibaba's partner committee, a group of less than 30 members, to hold sway over board nominations, over and above their collective minority stake in the company.

But there was little sign of any lingering acrimony here on Monday, as Alibaba executives brought their pitch to local investors, some of whom displayed a keen interest in getting a piece of the deal, which could be the biggest I.P.O. on record.

With demand for shares strong, Alibaba and its bankers have said they intend to close their order books earlier than originally planned, and since last week they have been weighing an increase of the offer price, currently marketed at $60 to $66 per share.

At a share price of $70, for example, Alibaba's I.P.O. would raise $22.4 billion, making it the biggest I.P.O. in history, surpassing the $22.1 billion raised by the Agricultural Bank of China in its 2010 listing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.

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A spokeswoman for Alibaba declined to comment on Monday.

At a luncheon at a ballroom in Hong Kong's Ritz-Carlton hotel, which occupies the top floors of the city's tallest building and overlooks Victoria Harbor, Alibaba's founder, Jack Ma, addressed a room packed with several hundred potential investors. As they dined, Mr. Ma told the audience to "think about us just like any other Internet company that happens to be in China," according to one attendee who plans to buy shares in the I.P.O.

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Mr. Ma spoke of being careful not to set valuations too high or too low, the attendee said, declining to be identified because the session was not open to the public.

Mr. Ma talked about the earlier I.P.O. of Alibaba.com, the company's business-to-business website, which listed in Hong Kong in 2007. He said some of his advisers encouraged him to price the I.P.O. much higher than he eventually did.

"I think they want to leave some on the table this time also," the attendee said.

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