Ant Group: Investors pour US$3 trillion into world’s largest IPO with frenzied bids in Hong Kong and Shanghai retail offerings
- Ant becomes the record holder in terms of number of retail investors and subscription sum in Hong Kong IPO history
- Banks and brokerages in Hong Kong lent about HK$500 billion in total margin financing for the retail portion of IPO
A record 19.05 trillion yuan (US$2.85 trillion) of bids were received from retail investors for Ant’s shares on Shanghai’s Star Market, exceeding the supply of shares by 870 times. In Hong Kong, 1.55 million retail investors, or about one-fifth of the city’s population, poured in HK$1.3 trillion (US$167.7 billion) for the shares when the book closed at noon on Friday, overbidding by 389 times, according to people familiar with the matter.
The locked-up sum is equivalent to more than half of the HK$2.46 trillion of money in circulation every day in the local financial system, based on end-August M1 data published by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The cash will remain frozen until November 5 when the stock begins trading.
The IPO has already mopped up more money than the stock sale by Chinese bottled water producer Nongfu Spring’s HK$677.7 billion. The number of mom-and-pop investors in Ant Group will also exceed the record when 970,000 people submitted bids for the shares of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2006, according to stock exchange data.
“The offering is so hot that more than 1 million retail investors have sent their subscriptions,” said Louis Tse Ming-kwong, managing director of Hong Kong-based brokerage Wealthy Securities. “It is a historic moment for Hong Kong’s securities market.”