Chinese regulators today suspended an initial public offering for Ant Group, the financial services affiliate of China-headquartered e-commerce group Alibaba, that was set to be the largest ever.
Ant had priced a dual offering set to take place on Shanghai’s Star Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and it would have raised $34.3bn at a valuation topping $313bn if the company had floated on schedule on Thursday this week.
However, after Ant’s executives were summoned to interviews with regulators the Shanghai Stock Exchange blocked its branch of the offering yesterday, and Hong Kong confirmed today that its half of the IPO has also been put on hold.
Ant was formed to oversee Alibaba’s financial technology products, including online payment platform Alipay, and it now runs a diversified offering spanning online lending, digital banking, wealth management, insurance and credit assessments.
The Shanghai announcement stated that Ant may no longer meet its listing qualifications or disclosure requirements following changes in the financial technology regulatory environment that may be related to rules announced on Monday limiting the size of online loans.
The moves came after comments late last month by Alibaba founder Jack Ma that were critical of Chinese state-owned banks and international banking regulations. Ant’s most recent funding had come in mid-2018 when it secured $14bn in series C funding at a $150bn valuation.
The 2018 round included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Primavera Capital, GIC, Warburg Pincus, Temasek, Silver Lake, Baillie Gifford, General Atlantic, Janchor Partners, Carlyle Group, Discovery Capital Management, Khazanah Nasional and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price.
The company was valued at $60bn in a $4.5bn series B round in 2016 featuring postal service China Post, insurers including China Life, China Construction Bank’s CCB Trust unit, China Development Bank Capital, Primavera Capital and China Investment Corp.
Ant had secured an undisclosed sum from National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF) and unnamed investment firms at a $50bn valuation in 2015 following series A funding from NCSSF and financial services firms Postal Savings Bank of China and China Development Bank earlier that year that valued it at $30bn.
