Alibaba's HK offering largest of 2019 so far

"I especially want to thank Hong Kong and the Hong Kong bourse for the city's innovation and the reform of its capital market in the past few years," said Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba at the iconic bell-ringing ceremony.

"These have enabled us to live up to the promise we made five years ago that 'if conditions permit in Hong Kong, we will definitely return'."

The company has called Hong Kong its "natural first choice" for share floating due to the proximity to the Chinese mainland where the lion's share of its businesses lies.

Yet a proposal in 2014 that would have allowed it to circumvent the exchange's ban on dualclass shares was rejected, propelling it to record a blockbuster IPO the same year in New York.

Dual class loosely refers to a mechanism that allows mainly tech entrepreneurs to keep control of their startups even after going public.