Alibaba Group Holding Ltd confirmed a pre-initial-public-offering road show next week in Hong Kong, the Yixian of Tencent news reported.

People walk past an Alibaba Group sign in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on May 10, 2018. (Photo: VCG)

The group had enquired some HK-based institutional investors with a 4 percent stock pricing discount based on the price in the New York Stock Exchange, which stood at $186.66 as of Nov 7. Some investors were not satisfied with the proposed discount, hoping at the discount to be at least 8 to 10 percent. Alibaba responded it was willing to expand the discount to around 5 percent.

Institutional investors are cautious about Alibaba's HK IPO. Some said they will decide whether to apply purchase credits after the discount is confirmed as they hold shares of Alibaba in the US market.

Alibaba has decided to go for a low-key IPO in HK. It has strictly controlled information to avoid any leaks since submitting the IPO application in June and prepared to launch the listing in late August.

According to Yixian, Alibaba will float in HK market sometime this month.