Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of China-based e-commerce group Alibaba, has postponed plans for an initial public offering until at least the end of 2019, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The company was rumoured to be gearing up for a flotation as early as this year, but people familiar with the matter told the FT the decision to put off the listing was in fact made several months ago. One source told the FT a flotation could be “years away”.
Spun out of Alibaba in 2011, Ant Financial operates a host of financial services products developed by, or connected to its parent company. Its flagship offering is mobile payment platform Alipay, which holds a majority share of the Chinese market.
Despite its market leadership, Ant Financial has faced fierce competition from Ten Pay, the mobile payment service owned by internet company Tencent, which has forced Ant to burn through cash and led to it making a loss in the first quarter of 2018.
Ant Financial has also faced pressure from the Chinese government, which has been cracking down on non-banking financial institutions. Regulatory challenges had already led Ant Financial to suspend plans for an IPO in May 2017.
The company closed a $14bn series C round in June 2018 that reportedly valued it at $150bn. It consisted of a US dollar-denominated tranche backed by GIC and Temasek – both owned by the government of Singapore – and a renminbi-denominated tranche from unnamed backers.
Khazanah Nasional, Warburg Pincus, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Silver Lake, General Atlantic, Carlyle Group, Janchor Partners, Discovery Capital Management, Baillie Gifford, Primavera Capital and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price also backed the round.
Ant Financial had previously received $4.5bn in 2016 from postal service China Post Group and insurance firms including China Life as well as Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, Primavera Capital, China Development Bank (CDB) and CCB Trust.
The company had already secured an undisclosed amount in series A funding the year before from backers including CDB, the Chinese government’s National Social Security Fund and several unnamed insurance companies.