Jack Ma’s Ant Group, valued at over US$200 billion, to kick start concurrent IPOs in Shanghai and Hong Kong, bypassing New York

The IPO could peg Ant Group at more than US$200 billion, more valuable than state-owned China Construction Bank and just shy of Bank of America

China’s richest man Jack Ma effectively controls about 50 per cent of the voting interest in Ant Group, according to Alibaba’s annual report

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A customer buys drugs through a facial-recognition system at a “future chemist” in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province on May 24, 2018. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 4:59pm, 20 Jul 2020Updated: 5:48pm, 27 Sep 2020

Ant Group, which operates the online payment platform for the world’s largest e-commerce company, is kicking off the process for simultaneous stock offerings in Shanghai and Hong Kong, extending a series of mega tech listings amid the fallout in US-China trade relations.

While the provider of the Alipay service is still discussing the size and timing of the share sale, the outcome is likely to be one of the largest initial public offerings in years. Stock analysts are valuing Ant at more than US$200 billion, higher than state-owned China Construction Bank and just shy of Bank of America’s market capitalisation.

Ant Group, previously known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Alibaba received a 33 per cent equity interest in Ant Financial in September last year under a restructuring that also ended a profit-sharing arrangement between them, according to its prospectus in November. While Alibaba does not control Ant Group, its co-founder and China’s richest man Jack Ma effectively controls about 50 per cent of the voting interest in Ant Group, according to its annual report.

Ant Group’s executive chairman Eric Jing. Photo: Tom Wang

Ant Group’s listing destinations are notable for excluding New York. Escalating US-China tension over trade, technology and finance has soured sentiment on New York listings broadly among Chinese entrepreneurs.

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