Industry insiders believe China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, will launch its much anticipated US initial public offering (IPO) early next week. Actual trading could begin in less than three weeks.

The expectation is based on the fact that Alibaba and US regulators will wrap up its IPO-related dialogue in the week of September 8, sources said.

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The launch, which is set to become the world's largest IPO in years, could raise more than US$20 billion, making it one of the largest ever in the US. Facebook raised US$16 billion in its IPO two years ago.

However, the launch still depends on the decision of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC must approve IPO listing documents before a company can set a price and launch the deal. If the timing holds, Alibaba shares could be trading as soon as Sept. 18 or 19.

The launch was initially planned by the end of August. Alibaba officials moved the target to September after the Labor Day Holiday in the United States, China Daily reported.

Sources interviewed by news agencies said Alibaba wanted to avoid the weeks before Labor Day, when many on Wall Street take  summer vacations.

Alibaba initially wanted to list in Hong Kong but some rules in the city-state forced the Chinese e-commerce firm to go to the US. Alibaba reportedly wanted Hong Kong regulators to tweak some of the listing rules but regulators did not give in to the demand.

Alibaba's largest shareholder is Japanese Internet telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank Corp.; SoftBank is followed by Yahoo.

Headquartered in the city of Hangzhou, Alibaba operates the Taobao and Tmall online marketplaces, which have hundreds of millions of users in China.

Transactions handled by Taobao and Tmall last year amounted to US$248 billion, which is greater than comparable figures for Amazon and eBay combined.

TagsAlibaba IPO, Alibaba US IPO, Wall Street, finance, Taobao, tmail