Ant Group plans record IPO for the market
Fintech company Ant Group from China announced an IPO, which is estimated at $30 billion. This amount will be a record not only for the segment, but also for the world market as a whole.
The first public offering of the company, which owns Alipay mobile payment platform, will be held at two exchanges. The 33% stake of Ant Group is owned by the billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of the Internet giant Alibaba Group. The shares of the financial companies will be placed on the stock exchange in Hong Kong, as well as the trading platform STAR in Shanghai, which specializes in Chinese technology companies.
Despite the fact that there is still no information about the analysis of cases in Ant Group, experts estimate the business capitalization at $200 billion. According to some sources, the company plans to sell about 10% of its shares on the Shanghai market and 5% of its securities on the Hong Kong stock exchange. In total, the volume is $30 billion.
Experts predict that the IPO of the Chinese giant will be a record in the history of the market. By the amount it will outrun the placement of Saudi Aramco oil corporation from Saudi Arabia. The last one was held in 2019 and amounted to more than 29 billion dollars.
Ant representatives say that the market entry will make it possible to implement a large-scale strategy for the digitalization of the services segment in China. In addition, the fintech company will be able to expand its influence on global progress and increase investment in the development of new digital technologies.
Previously Ant Group was called Ant Financial, it owned a huge platform Alipay, which allowed it to carry out various mobile payment operations. The decision to place its shares on the STAR platform in Shanghai, which is considered an analogue of the New York Stock Exchange for the Chinese market, was taken in view of the worsening conflict between the United States and China. Last year, the U.S. government passed a law prohibiting the circulation of Chinese companies’ securities on the local stock market in case the regulator does not have access to audit reports. The decree was a response to the national security law that Beijing introduced to control the situation in Hong Kong. The document was critically adopted by many world politicians, including Washington.
However, it should be noted that despite the difficulties, a major player in the local market, such as Ant Group, sees China as a promising platform for business development. Another advantage for the company is a decrease in the popularity of cash. During the pandemic, due to the threat of infection, paper banknotes and coins practically stopped being used, switching to electronic payments.
