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Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group’s huge dual listing will be the world’s largest, based on a price set on Friday night, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said on Saturday.
FILE PHOTO – Jack Ma, founder and CEO of China’s Alibaba Group, speaks in front of an image of SoftBank’s robot called ‘pepper’ during a press conference in Chiba, Japan, on June 18, 2015. REUTERS / Yuya Shino / Stock Image
SHANGHAI: Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group’s huge dual listing will be the world’s largest, based on a price set on Friday night, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said on Saturday.
“This is the first time that the price of such a large stock, the largest in human history, has been determined outside of New York City,” he said at the Bund Summit in Shanghai’s eastern financial center. .
“We didn’t dare to think about that five years ago, not even three years ago. But a miracle just happened,” he told the audience, which included officials from China’s regulators.
He did not give exact details of the price that is expected to be officially announced next week.
Backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant plans to simultaneously list in Hong Kong and the Shanghai STAR market in the coming weeks.
Sources have said the listing could be worth $ 35 billion, beating the record set by Saudi Aramco’s $ 29.4 billion float last December.
Ma said the financial and regulatory system stifles innovation and calls for a revamp to extend financial services to more small businesses and individuals on the basis of technology, a spirit that Ant relies heavily on.
He said the global system established after World War II is outdated and too risk-averse, calling the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision “a club for the elderly” and warning that risks are mounting across the economy.
In China, banks still operate with a strong “pawnshop” mentality, requiring collateral and collateral before making loans, a model that will not drive future growth, he said.
Instead, he said a new, inclusive and universal banking system should be established that makes loans to small businesses and individuals on the basis of big data.
Ant, who has an extensive payments and microloan business that relies primarily on big data, has faced increasing scrutiny from regulators.
“The current financial system is the legacy of the industrial age,” Ma said. “We must create a new one for the next generation and the young. We must reform the current system.”
(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Brenda Goh; Edited by William Mallard)
