Ant Group, the financial services affiliate of China-headquartered e-commerce group Alibaba, confirmed today it will raise about $34.3bn in a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The company priced approximately 1.67 billion shares at RMB68.80 ($10.24 at current exchange rates) for the listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market, and the same number at HK$80.00 ($10.32m) each for the Hong Kong offering.
The IPOs are set to take place on November 5 and would give Ant a market capitalisation of roughly $313bn. Its size could be increased to $39.6bn if the underwriters fully take up the over-allotment option.
Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have each subscribed for nearly $300m of shares in the Shanghai offering while Temasek and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are each buying approximately $223m.
Alibaba’s Zhejiang Tmall Technology subsidiary was already reported to be buying 730 million shares in the Shanghai offering.
Ant’s products range from Alipay, the mobile wallet and digital payment processor developed within Alibaba, to digital bank MyBank, credit scoring service Zhima and virtual credit card Huabei as well as consumer lending, insurance and wealth management services.
The company’s first funding came in 2015 when it secured an undisclosed amount from financial services firms Postal Savings Bank of China and China Development Bank in addition to China’s National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF) at a $30bn valuation.
NCSSF and unnamed investment firms added an undisclosed sum later that year through a private placement at a $50bn valuation that was increased to $60bn in a $4.5bn series B round in 2016.
Postal service China Post and insurance firms including China Life joined China Construction Bank’s CCB Trust unit, China Development Bank Capital, Primavera Capital and China Investment Corp in the series B round.
Ant added a further $14bn from GIC, Temasek, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Primavera Capital, Warburg Pincus, Silver Lake, Baillie Gifford, General Atlantic, Carlyle Group, Janchor Partners, Discovery Capital Management, Khazanah Nasional and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price in a mid-2018 series C round valuing it at $150bn.
