Ant Group stirs up interest
Chinese firm aims for $34.4B IPO
Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group has set terms for a dual listing aimed at raising up to US$34.4 billion from the world's largest stock market debut, with investors scrambling for a piece of the fast-growing company.
The deal would value Ant at more than US$313 billion before a so-called greenshoe option for a 15-per-cent overallotment of shares.
At that valuation, Ant is worth more than Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's biggest bank by assets.
The looming market debut, however, is clouded by concerns over growing regulatory scrutiny of Ant's lucrative consumer credit business as well as a U.S. State Department proposal to add the fintech group to a trade blacklist.
Global investors, however, have largely shrugged off those concerns as they bet on continued rapid growth of a group that also
The envisioned US$34.4-billion total offering ... would comfortably beat Saudi Aramco's US$29.4 billion IPO.
operates China's biggest mobile payments platform and distributes wealth management and insurance products.
Announcing the deal terms on Monday, Ant said that large, strategic investors in the Shanghai tranche of the initial public offering (IPO) would include Singapore state investor Temasek Holding, as well as Singaporean and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
It has earmarked 80 per cent of its domestic offering to 29 strategic investors that will be locked up for at least one year and will also include a wholly owned unit of technology giant Alibaba and China's National Council for Social Security Fund.
While the Alibaba unit has agreed to purchase 44 per cent of the Shanghai float, large Chinese insurers and mutual funds will also have shares allocated via the strategic investor route, Monday's filing showed.
Referring to Ant's float as a “miracle,” the billionaire founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, on Saturday told a conference in Shanghai that it is the first time the pricing for such a big listing has been determined outside New York.
Headquartered in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, Ant is aiming to raise about US$17.2 billion in Shanghai and roughly the same in Hong Kong, Ant said in filings to the two exchanges late on Monday.
The envisioned US$34.4-billion total offering, even before the greenshoe option, would comfortably beat Saudi Aramco's US$29.4 billion IPO last December.
Ant shares are expected to start trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai on Nov. 5, two days after the U.S. election, in the first dual listing in the Asian financial hub and on the year-old STAR market.
Ant set the price tag for the Shanghai leg of the listing at 68.8 yuan (US$10.27) per share and HKUS$80 (US$10.32) per share for the Hong Kong tranche, the exchange filings showed.