China’s piggy bank, the National Social Security Fund, set to be among Ant Group’s top IPO investors

State-run pension fund to buy shares in the Shanghai leg of Ant Group’s dual listing to bolster retirement savings for 1.4 billion population

NSSF has called Ant one of fund’s best investments. It first backed Ant in 2015 when the “elephant” fell in love with an ant

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Signage for Alipay, China’s largest mobile payment app operated by Ant Group. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 4:03pm, 25 Sep 2020Updated: 10:13am, 28 Sep 2020

Ant Group is making room for China’s state pension fund, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), to buy shares during the financial technology giant’s blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) in the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.

The group is favouring long-term investors who backed the country’s biggest mobile payment operator in its infancy and are passive in their approach to management, they added. The Alipay operator is wading through emails and phone calls from a Who’s Who list of global investors clamouring for a share in what is likely to be the world’s largest-ever IPO.

The 2.63 trillion yuan (US$386 billion) fund, which has owned a stake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang-based Ant Group since 2015, will be a cornerstone investor in the home leg of its simultaneous stock offerings in Shanghai and in Hong Kong, the people added. NSSF spokespeople did not immediately reply to an email asking for comment. An Ant spokesman declined to comment.

China is keen for its pension funds to make savvy investments to help the government shoulder the burden of providing for its rapidly ageing population in their retirement years. Chaired by Liu Wei, the NSSF draws funds from the state’s coffers, lottery ticket sales, state-owned enterprises as well as income from its investment portfolio.

China is betting that innovative companies such as Ant Group will spur economic growth even as its working-age population dwindles. A recent demographic study estimated that segment of the population would shrink by 19 per cent over the next 40 years, reversing a growth trend of more than 100 per cent since 1970. People aged over 60 will number 487 million by around 2050, about 35 per cent of China’s population, another study showed.

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