Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know
Ant Group plans to raise $34.5 billion in initial public offerings (IPO) in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The new stock market listing will make Ant one of the most valuable finance companies in the world with a $315bn market capitalisation. It expects its shares to start trading in Hong Kong on 5 November.
It is reported that Ant Group plans to issue 1.67bn shares at a price of $10.32 (80 Hong Kong dollars) each and set to raise around $17bn (132bn Hong Kong dollars).
The company will also start share trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's sci-tech innovation board on 5 November, raising up to $19.7bn (RMB132.2bn). It is said that these shares would be sold at $20.2 (RMB68.8) each.
The company is making 11% of the company available on the public markets. It is reported that more than 6,000 funds, run by hundreds of investment groups, applied to buy shares in Shanghai. The offering was 284 times oversubscribed, a Financial Times report said.
Wei Liu, a corporate expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-law, said, "It is the first time that a technology company has the top market cap in the Chinese stock market. This symbolises the growth of technology companies in China. Ant Group’s success has been phenomenon, and its Alipay has changed a lot Chinese people’s lives and habits. It will be interesting to see how it will develop its business outside of China after the IPO."
Ant Group filed its prospectus with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August. It was launched in 2004 by e-commerce giant Alibaba and Jack Ma. It runs Alipay, which dominates online payments in China. Ant Group earned $2.7bn (RMB18.07bn) in profit on $18bn (RMB120.6bn) of revenue in 2019.
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