Hong Kong — US regulators have selected e-commerce giant Alibaba and other US-listed Chinese companies for audit inspections starting next month, three sources familiar with the matter said.
PwC, the accounting firm of China’s biggest e-commerce company, has also been informed of the audit work inspection, said the sources, declining to be identified due to confidentiality constraints. A PCAOB spokesperson said the board did not comment on inspections. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alibaba, which went public in New York in 2014 in what was at the time the largest listing in history, is the most valuable Chinese firm listed in the US with a market value of $248bn as of Tuesday.The PCAOB said on Friday that the watchdog had notified the selected companies, without naming them, and its officials are expected to land in Hong Kong, where the inspections will take place, by mid-September.
Founded in 1999, Alibaba counts e-commerce as its key business and has expanded into fast-growing sectors such as cloud services and internet of things in recent years. It also owns AutoNavi, a large Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm.