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Earlier this month, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group filed to go public in the U.S. in what could be one of the biggest IPOs in American history. In the prospectus, one of the company's claimed strengths is a "management team with owner mentality," but that's far too simplistic. The question is: With which owners does management share its mentality -- the public owners or the owners with holdings in the Chinese entities buried deep inside the company's financial statements? 本月初，中国电子商务巨擘阿里巴巴集团（Alibaba Group）申请在美国上市，有望成为美国历史上规模最大的IPO之一。这家公司在招股说明书中称，它的优势之一在于“管理团队有主人翁精神”，但这样的描述过于简单。问题在于：谁和管理层一样具有这样的精神——是公众股东？还是深藏在阿里巴巴财务报表中的国内实体所有者？ The question is important because CEO Jack Ma works for Alibaba subsidiaries inside China, as well as the firm's new public shareholders. This is the hidden hook inside all consolidated financial statements. These documents paint a picture of a unified whole, but the many subsidiaries under a holding company umbrella are where the real operations take place. They are also subject to different levels of ownership. Outsiders sometimes own a chunk of equity in subsidiaries, and their assets can be subject to claims of lenders. These details aren't always apparent to investors looking only at the consolidated picture. | 
