Photographer: Lam Yik / Bloomberg
Photographer: Lam Yik / Bloomberg
Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group plans to file for double advertising in Hong Kong and Shanghai over the next few weeks, targeting a valuation of about $ 225 billion, said people familiar with the matter, in an effort to raise the largest initial public offering to take off from the world.
Share sales could increase by a total of about $ 30 billion if markets are favorable, one of the people said, asking not to be named because the case is private. The Hangzhou-based company is trying to push its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange and the tech-oriented Star board in Shanghai as soon as October, people said.
Ant, who made about $ 1.3 billion in it profit in March quarter, is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. founder Ma’s valued assets. It has morphed from a fintech platform into an online shopping mall for everything from loans and travel services to food delivery, in a bid to win back buyers who have lost out on Tencent Holdings Ltd. With data from nearly a billion users of the Alipay app on its back, Ant is pushing broadly into financial services, delivering technology such as robo-investing and lending platforms, as well as building its consulting business.
A $ 30 billion double list could mark the biggest debut worldwide, topping Saud Aramco’s record is $ 29.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At a valuation of $ 225 billion, Ant’s valuation would be greater than Goldman Sachs Group Inc. en Morgan Stanley combined.
Ant’s plans including details of the share sale are subject to change, people said. A representative for Ant declined to comment.
China Securities Regulatory Commission received request Friday from Ant for a foreign listing, according to her website. No further details were given.
Ant’s IPO will give another impetus Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., which has already seen a renaissance of Chinese tech ads, after the rules relaxed in the wake of the loss of China’s largest tech companies to New York. Alibaba, which owns a third of Ant, returned last year with a $ 13 billion secondary listing in Hong Kong.
China’s attempt to build its own tech fair in Shanghai underscores the geopolitical tensions with Washington. A highly motivated group of American regulators said this month that stock exchanges should introduce new rules that could trigger the delisting of Chinese companies. Companies must give U.S. regulators access to their working documents for control to trade on a U.S. exchange, according to the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.
The recommendations address a problem that U.S. regulators have been cheating on for more than a decade: China refuses to allow inspectors from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to audit audits of companies trading in U.S. markets. A high-profile accounting scandal at Luckin Coffee Inc. has raised such concerns this year as well.
(Updates with CSRC accept Ant’s application for translation in the sixth paragraph.)
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