Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of China-based e-commerce group Alibaba, is aiming to raise up to $5bn in funding, Reuters reported today, citing unnamed sources.
The funding round is set to launch within the next few months and is being viewed as a pre-initial public offering round. It would value Ant Financial at $80bn to $100bn, hinting at the valuation Ant Financial may seek when it goes public.
Spun out of Alibaba in 2014, Ant Financial operates a range of financial services products such as wealth management tools, credit scoring and Alipay, the most commonly-used online payment platform in China. It claims to have 520 million annual users.
The news follows an announcement last week that Alibaba will acquire a 33% stake in Ant Financial, replacing the current arrangement, whereby it receives 37.5% of Ant Financial’s pre-tax profit.
The company previously closed a $4.5bn series B round in 2016. The round, which valued Ant Financial at $60bn. featured postal service China Post Group and insurance firms including China Life.
Private equity firm Primavera Capital Group, sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, the government-owned China Development Bank Capital and CCB Trust, a subsidiary of China Construction Bank, also took part in the series B round.
China Development Bank, National Council for Social Security Fund and unnamed Chinese insurance providers paid an undisclosed sum for a 12.4% stake in Ant Financial in 2015 at a reported valuation of $40bn to $50bn.