There was plenty of discussion in our weekly Global Venturing Review podcast out today about China-based financial services firm Ant Group’s flotation after regulatory approval was granted late last week.
Today we know more details about the size of the offering after the share price was set. Ant will raise $34.5bn – the biggest initial public offering – by splitting its stock issuance equally across Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, according to news provider CNBC.
Ant will issue 1.67 billion new shares in each location at RMB68.8 per share in Shanghai from an undisclosed date and HK$80 each in Hong Kong from 5 November giving it a market capitalisation of $313.4bn.
Strategic investors, led by former parent Alibaba, have subscribed to 80% of the company’s Shanghai-issued shares. Alibaba, via its subsidiary Zhejiang Tmall Technology, has agreed to buy 730 million A-shares to maintain its 33% stake in Ant Group.
The question is when will this ant supercolony take over the world?
