The world's 16 largest IPOs ever

If Groupon goes public with a valuation of $25 billion in 2011, it will be the largest IPO by a venture-backed company, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Chicago-based Groupon, which offers daily discounted deals at local restaurants and retail outlets, reportedly saw sales of $760 million in 2010, a big rise from the $33 million in revenue from 2009.

Whether Groupon's IPO will break records or not is yet to be seen, but some companies have.

Here is a look at top 16 non-venture-backed IPOs that have broken all records, according to Business Insider.

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Proceeds: $9.576 billion

Issue Year: 1994

Market: Japan

Company's profile: Japan Tobacco is the world's third-largest tobacco company, with a global market share of 11 per cent and market capitalisation of about $32 billion.

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Proceeds: $9.914 billion

Issue Year: 1993

Market: Japan

Company's profile: East Japan Railway is the largest passenger railway company in the world and one of the seven Japan Railways Group companies.

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Proceeds: $10.189 billion

Issue Year: 1997

Market: Australia

Company's profile: Telstra is an Australian telecommunications and information services company that provides fixed line and mobile services in addition to 3G services.

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Proceeds: $10.620 billion

Issue Year: 2000

Market: United States

Company's profile: AT&T Wireless is America's second-largest wireless telecommunications company that provides mobile and Wi-Fi services.

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Proceeds: $10.656 billion

Issue Year: 2006

Market: Russia

Company's profile: Rosneft is a petroleum company partially owned by the Russian government that is engaged in exploration and production in Russia, the Far East, Kazakhstan and Algeria.

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Proceeds: $11.159 billion

Issue Year: 2010

Market: Japan

Company's profile: Daiichi is one of Japan's top insurance companies that provides individual and group life insurance, annuities and medical coverage.

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Proceeds: $11.186 billion

Issue Year: 2006

Market: China

Company's profile: The Bank of China is one of the largest partially state-owned banks in China that offers a range of financial services to customers across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and 29 other countries.

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Proceeds: $12.487 billion

Issue Year: 1996

Market: Germany

Company's profile: Deutsche Telekom is a telecommunications and information technology service company with more than 200 million customers in about 50 countries.

...

Proceeds: $13.745 billion

Issue Year: 1986

Market: Japan

Company's profile: NTT is a telecommunications provider in Japan that offers fixed and mobile voice and other telecommunications related services.

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Proceeds: $16.588 billion

Issue Year: 1999

Market: Italy

Company's profile: Enel is Italy's largest power company that produces, distributes and sells electricity and gas to more than 61 million customers in 40 countries.

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Proceeds: $18.051 billion

Issue Year: 1998

Market: Japan

Company's profile: In April 2000, NTT Mobile Communications Network changed its name to NTT Docomo. The company provides wireless telecommunication services to more than 56 million subscribers in Japan.

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Proceeds: $19.650 billion

Issue Year: 2008

Market: United States

Company's profile: Visa is the operator of the largest consumer payment system in the world. The company counts about 1.7 billion payment cards, credit and otherwise, in circulation.

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Proceeds: $20.500 billion

Issue Year: 2010

Market: Hong Kong

Company's profile: American International Assurance is an insurance company based in Hong Kong with offices in the Asia-Pacific region.

...

Proceeds: $20.1 billion

Issue Year: 2010

Market: NYSE

Company's profile: General Motors is an American multinational auto-maker based in Detroit, Michigan, and world's second-largest automaker after Toyota.

...

Proceeds: $21.969 billion

Issue Year: 2006

Market: China

Company's profile: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China provides financial products and services to 3.61 million corporate and 216 million individual clients.

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Proceeds: $22.121 billion

Issue Year: 2010

Market: China

Company's profile: The Agricultural Bank of China is one of China's largest banks with more than 24,000 branches and about 441,000 employees.