Tuesday’s after-hours buzz revolves around Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba filing for an initial public offering in the U.S. With the $1 billion placeholder, Jack Ma’s company, which is 24%-owned by Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO), could be the largest U.S. IPO ever, topping the likes of Visa (NYSE: V) and Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB).
Now, Alibaba must decide on which U.S. exchange to list – Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. As ETF Trends reported Tuesday morning, where Alibaba decides to list will have affect which ETFs the stock joins and when. [Nasdaq Could Have a Leg up on Alibaba IPO]
Nasdaq might have an inside track due to some overlooked, ETF-related advantages.
For example, since Alibaba is not a U.S. company, it will not be eligible for inclusion in the S&P 500. The NASDAQ-100, tracked by the PowerShares QQQ (NasdaqGM: QQQ), allows for the inclusion of foreign companies. Hence Baidu (NasdaqGS: BIDU), China’s largest Internet search provider, is a member of QQQ, but not the S&P 500 although the company easily meets the market cap criteria to be an S&P 500 constituent.
Assuming a Nasdaq listing, and to be crystal clear, that is no more than speculation at this juncture, makes it easier to predict a timeline for when Alibaba will join certain ETFs.
The stock would be eligible for inclusion in the Fidelity NASDAQ Composite Index Fund (NasdaqGM: ONEQ), the Nasdaq Composite tracking ETF, within a matter of days, perhaps just two or three days, after its first trading day.