Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are understood to have taken much-coveted roles on the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce company.

The listing, set to be the biggest IPO since Facebook, could reportedly value the company at as much as $100bn (£64bn), although more conservative estimates have pegged the value at between $60bn (£39bn) and $70bn ($46bn).