– A MIRACLE: Believes China’s richest man, Jack Ma. Foto: Bloomberg
Supported by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant Group plans to be listed simultaneously in Hong Kong and on Shanghai’s STAR market next week.
– This is the first time the pricing of such a large listing – the largest in human history – has been decided outside New York City, Jack Ma said at the Bund summit in Shanghai after pricing was determined on Friday.
Up to $ 35 billion
– We did not dare to think about it five years ago, or even three years ago. But a miracle just happened, the Alibaba founder told the audience, which is said to have included representatives of the Chinese authorities.
Jack Ma did not say at the summit what the listing will come up with. Saudi Aramco’s IPO in December last year of $ 29.4 billion is currently the largest, and sources Reuters has spoken with say that the Ant Group can be valued at as much as $ 35 billion.
The Alibaba-affiliated company Ant Group achieved a profit of 21.9 billion yuan (NOK 30.4 billion) in the first half of the year. There was an increase of over 1,000 per cent from the same period last year, at the same time as the top line growth came in at 38 per cent.
According to the prospectus, the company must sell at least 10 percent of its shares in the IPO.
Over 1 billion users
Ant is behind the popular mobile payment app Alipay, which according to the prospectus has over one billion annual active users, and performed 118 trillion yuan in transactions in mainland China in the 12 months ending June 30 this year.
Ant Group also offers, among other things, loans to companies as well as services within asset management and insurance.
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