Alibaba
Alibaba's logo is seen at its headquarters on the outskirts of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province April 23, 2014. Picture taken April 23, 2014. REUTERS/Chance Chan

In 2000, Softbank of Japan invested $20 million in Alibaba.com, which was not known yet in the global tech circle. Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of Softbank, is reaping the fruit of his investment decision as shareprices of Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) surge ahead of its initial public offering on Friday, Sept 19.

Read: Alibaba Hikes IPO Price Range To $66-$68 From $60-$66

With Softbank's 37 per cent stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant larger than Amazon and eBay combined, Son is now the richest man in Japan with an estimated personal wealth of $16.6 billion, The Independent reports.

Son owns 19 per cent of Softbank. He said the bank has no plans to sell its stake in Alibaba, which hiked it price range on Tuesday.

If the shares are valued at the upper price of $68, Alibaba could raise $25 billion, making it the largest IPO in stock market history.

Besides Son, former and current Alibaba employees are also expected to become wealthier with the public listing of the Chinese e-commerce giant since the firm founded by former teacher Jack Ma has distributed shares workers over the past 15 years since it was established in 1999.

According to Alibaba's filing, over 4,000 of the company's 20,000 current employees and more than 1,000 of former staff are selling their shares. At $68 per stock, the sale would fetch them collectively $1.06 billion or an average of $212,000 per person.

The former and current Alibaba employees could sell only a maximum of 20 per cent of their holdings during the IPO.

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