According to a report on The Wall Street Journal, an estimated two dozen investors who bought privately-offered stocks in 2012 will have shares valued at more than triple their original selling price as the Alibaba IPO nears the $25 billion mark. 

Biggest IPO of All Time 

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The current Alibaba IPO reached $24 billion, as reported by WSJ. The current IPO share price is estimated to be at $66 to $68 a share. This places the Chinese company's current value at $165 billion, which is more than four times the original value ($40 billion) when the preferred shares were sold to select investors last 2012. According to CNBC, Alibaba's IPO tops Facebook's 2012 $16 billion IPO. 

WSJ reports that the investors who bought preferred shares in 2012 include Asian hedge funds and sovereign-wealth funds. The original offering was worth $1.7 billion, in accordance with the information gathered from an unnamed bank that reportedly handled the deal back then. Earlier securities filings reveal that the shares were at a $60 to $66 per share range when bankers moved their price to the $66-68 a share range on Monday. If share prices continue to rise, Alibaba could make its debut on Friday with a record IPO of $25 billion. 

CNN compares this record-breaking IPO to other big IPOs on record. Facebook is dwarfed at $16 billion, followed by GM at $18.1 billion. Visa comes in third at $19.7 billion, while the Agricultural Bank of China comes the closest to Alibaba at $22.1 billion. According to CNN's chart, the current value of Alibaba IPO is at $24.3 billion. 

Big Winners Named 

The Wall Street Journal also named some of the previously undisclosed investors who stand to gain from the record-breaking IPO. These include Hongkong-based hedge fund firms Myriad Assed Management, Ltd. and Janchor Partners, Ltd., Connecticut-based hedge fund firm Viking Global Investors, an investment firm reportedly affiliated with Fidelity Investments, a giant US mutual-fund firm, and Singapore-based GIC Pte., Ltd and Temasek Holdings Pte., Ltd., whose funds are controlled by the government. 

Credit Suisse Group AG, one of the firms said to have handled the sale of the preferred shares, is reported to have bought $40 million worth of shares, with WSJ citing inside sources familiar with the 2012 transaction. Neither Alibaba nor the reported select investors released a comment on the matter. WSJ reports that Alibaba chose the preferred investors based on their relationship with the company at the time the shared were sold. 

WSJ illustrates the gains of the companies by citing the investments of Hongkong-based Janchor and Myriad. Janchor Partners is said to have invested $150 million out of their $1 billion assets in 2012, while Myriad invested $100 million out of $2 billion. Janchor stands to gain $400 million when Alibaba debuts its stock market listing on Friday. 

According to the WSJ report, the sale of the convertible preferred shares was the last time Alibaba offered shares directly to investors. Since then, investors have traded shares privately and Alibaba has not offered shares directly to new investors. Early investors who stand to gain from the Alibaba IPO include Yahoo! and Japan's Sotbank Corp.

TagsAlibaba IPO, Alibaba stocks