Bulk of Alibaba shares to go to 25-50 large institutions: sources

(Reuters) - Underwriters for Alibaba Group Holdings are planning to give the bulk of shares sold by the Chinese e-commerce company to a group of 25 to 50 large institutions, people familiar with the situation said Thursday. By focusing the allocation so narrowly on large institutions, the banks hope to prevent volatile trading of its shares after expected trading begins on Friday and in the weeks to come, the sources said. The company is set to sell some $22 billion of shares on Thursday after the close of U.S. trading. (Reporting By Liana Baker and Jessica Toonkel; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)