Jack Ma's financial tech giant Ant Group Co. filed for an IPO split between Hong Kong and Shanghai targeting a market valuation of more than $200b.
Why it matters: Ant's IPO is likely to be the largest ever, passing the $29b raised by Saudi Aramco last year. This is also the first time we've had a full look at Ant's business, which generated $3b in profit for the first six months of 2020 with margins of 30% and profit growth of over 1,000% — extremely healthy numbers for a relatively young company.
What is Ant: The fintech wing of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. Its largest piece of business is Alipay, the payments processor that dominates China and is used by 700m+ people and 80m+ businesses in China. Alipay has expanded from payments into mutua funds, insurance, and more.
The geopolitical angle: Ant's decision to list jointly on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges is a clear message to the Americans that Hong Kong can survive as a financial hub even as China asserts more authority in the city.
Why it matters: Ant's IPO is likely to be the largest ever, passing the $29b raised by Saudi Aramco last year. This is also the first time we've had a full look at Ant's business, which generated $3b in profit for the first six months of 2020 with margins of 30% and profit growth of over 1,000% — extremely healthy numbers for a relatively young company.
What is Ant: The fintech wing of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. Its largest piece of business is Alipay, the payments processor that dominates China and is used by 700m+ people and 80m+ businesses in China. Alipay has expanded from payments into mutua funds, insurance, and more.
The geopolitical angle: Ant's decision to list jointly on the Hong Kong and Shanghai exchanges is a clear message to the Americans that Hong Kong can survive as a financial hub even as China asserts more authority in the city.