Ant Group, a subsidiary of China’s Alibaba Group, is reportedly planning to list its overseas branch, Ant International, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to Chinese media sources.
Caixin, citing sources close to the company in an exclusive, reported that Ant is in talks with regulators about a potential listing. The report did not specify whether these discussions are with regulators in China or other countries for the Ant International IPO.
However, Caixin did report that Zhou Zhifeng, a senior vice president of the group, is leading discussions with Hong Kong and Singapore regulators in the Ant International IPO.
This move could mark a significant revival of Ant Group’s global ambitions following the suspension of its IPO in 2020. According to Yahoo Finance, Chinese regulators abruptly halted Ant Group’s highly anticipated 2020 IPO and launched a sweeping antitrust crackdown targeting major domestic firms, including Alibaba.
The regulatory action was reportedly triggered by Ma’s speech, in which he criticised financial regulators for stifling innovation.
The earlier IPO was poised to make history as the largest ever, with shares valued at an astonishing $34.4 billion. This would have surpassed Saudi Aramco’s record-setting $29.4 billion debut in December 2019, according to a CEO today report.
Ant International is a digital payment, financial technology and digitalisation provider, and offers Alipay+, Antom, and Bettr, an AI-powered digital lending and credit service for SMEs. It also offers a unified business account service through WorldFirst.
Ant Group provides digital payment, digital finance, digital connectivity, digital technologies and aims to deliver a global, inclusive ecosystem too.
Source of image: Edited from Freepik
