The largest shareholders of the Alibaba Group have backed the partnership structure proposed by the company that was the central issue of a debate as to the permission to list its shares in the bourse. The listing of the Chinese e-commerce company is the most anticipated one since Facebook's own IPO last year.

Many analysts predict that Alibaba would be valued at USD120 billion. Despite such prediction, many have failed to convince regulators in Hong Kong to waive its stringent listing requirements. Because of this, the company is virtually being handed to rival market operators in the United States.

The company was established by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma and is searching for a bourse to list its stock where their 28 partners, mostly founders and senior executives would be able to keep control over the board's majority. This move was being pushed despite owning only 13% of the company.

According to Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, in the first comments regarding the issue, defended the corporate structure, calling it a 'living body' which would preserve the company's culture.

In response, despite the standing loss of revenues on the projected USD15 billion IPO, Hong Kong regulators have remained firm on their defence of small investors and upholding its policy of equal treatment of all shareholders, regardless of the volume of their business.