Ant Group files for record listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai
The $30bn listing would be the world's largest beating Saudi Aramco’s $29bn IPO
Alibaba’s Ant Group has filed to be listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai which could become the worlds largest IPO, raising around $30bn (£22bn, €25bn).
Although the size, timetable and other key details of the offering are not disclosed, people close to the matter say the group was aiming to raise about $30bn targeting a valuation of $200bn to $300bn and selling 15 per cent of its shares – five per cent in Hong Kong and 10 per cent in Shanghai.
The Hangzhou-based company earned 72.5bn yuan ($10.5bn) in revenue in the first half of 2020, after full-year sales of 120.6bn yuan in 2019, with its payments business Alipay contributing to 43 per cent of its sales, it said. The firm posted a profit of 21.2bn yuan in the first half of 2020.
Ant said its Alipay app, which is the most popular mobile payment platform in China, has 1bn annual users, with 711m active monthly as of June and payment volumes reaching 118tn yuan in China
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The listing would top Saudi Aramco’s $29bn IPO which is the record so far.
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