CICC, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley will be advisers on the Hong Kong Ant Group’s listing plan, while CICC and CSC Financial will underwrite the Shanghai leg of the IPO.
China’s largest fintech company Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial Services Group or Alipay, is planning to go public. On Tuesday, Ant Group filed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The company is targeting to raise as much as $30 billion and use the funds for expansion.
The dual listing may become the largest fundraising in history. According to the filing, Ant Group will issue at least 10% in new shares of its total capital (or 30.04 billion shares). The company generated 72.5 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in revenue in the first half of 2020, after full-year sales of 120.6 billion yuan in 2019. The company reported a profit of 21.2 billion yuan in the first half. More than a third of the revenue came from digital payments and merchant services, while nearly two-thirds came from its fast-growing digital-finance technology platform.
Zennon Kapron, a director at financial services company Kapronasia, said:
“This IPO will be like a coming-out party and will embolden them. They will have a lot more cash in hand, and they should be able to expand more internationally.”
Ant has chosen China International Capital Corp, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley for its Hong Kong offering. Besides, Credit Suisse will serve as a joint global coordinator there. To underwrite the IPO in Shanghai, Ant Group picked CICC and CSC Financial Co.
Abt Group has not yet revealed the pricing of its shares.
Notably, Ant Group decided against an IPO in the US because of the tensions between the Donald Trump administration and China. But an IPO in both Hong Kong and Shanghai will also be a victory. The company will be able to expand its cross-border payments and conduct more research. Meanwhile, foreign investors will get a chance to own a piece of Ant Group.
About Ant Group
Ant Group is an innovative technology provider that strives to bring the world inclusive, green, and sustainable services. It operates Alipay, China’s dominant online payments platform. In addition, it runs one of the world’s leading money market funds Zhima Credit (known as Sesame Credit) as well as private online bank MYbank.
The largest shareholder of Ant Group is Alibaba with a 33% Ant’s stake.
Back in 2018, Ant Group ran a private fundraising round after which it was valued at $150 billion. At that time, the company became the most valuable startup in the world. The new IPO could bring Ant Group’s value to as high as $225 billion.
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