Jack Ma’s Alibaba Affiliate Company, After the IPO issue of Ant Group (world’s largest), it is now creating new records.The $ 35 billion IPO has seen demand from retail investors of around $ 3 trillion so far, which is close to the UK GDP in 2019 and higher than India’s economy. In Shanghai, where demand for the shares of this fintech company was up to 870 times the supply, a brokerage company in Hong Kong had to stop the bidding process for a while. The company’s shares are expected to be listed on the markets of Shanghai and Hong Kong on November 5. Let’s know everything about the world’s largest IPO.
What is special about this IPO
The company’s shares are being sold through dual listings on stock exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Both exchanges have brought equal shares of the company for sale. Given the tension with the US, this IPO could not come on the New York exchange. Ant Financial is expecting a valuation of $ 250 billion with the help of this public issue. For comparison, Reliance Industries in India received a $ 150 billion valuation in June, which was the first such opportunity in India.
How big is this public offer
- Size 34.5 billion dollars (about 2 lakh 56 thousand crores)
- This is about $ 5 billion more than Saudi Aramco’s $ 29.4 billion IPO launched in December 2019.
- If based on the IPO launched in India, it is bigger than all the public issues launched here in the last five years
- In the list of the largest public issue, Alibaba is the parent company of Ant Group at number three with $ 25 billion.
What is the reason for high demand
Such support for Ant Financial’s IPO shows confidence in the company, even amid disputes from the US. Such enthusiasm is a big thing for this China-based financial company, despite Covid’s growing threat again. Expecting huge profits at the time of listing is attracting investors a lot. The company generated $ 10.5 billion in revenue in the first half of this year despite the Corona crisis, with profits of $ 3.2 billion. In the last 5 years, the company has raised $ 20 billion in 3 rounds.
Current investors of the company include several well-known names including General Atlantic, Silver Lake, China Investment Corp, Blackrock.
Book Runners and Sponsors – The book runners for this IPO are Barclays, ICBC International and Bank of China International. In Shanghai, where CICC and China Securities are sponsoring this public offer, in Hong Kong, CICC, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are its sponsors.
Ali Pay was launched in 2011 as a payments company for Alibaba. Ant Financial became one in 2014 and Alibaba holds about 50.5% in it.
What does Ant Financial do
Ant Financial’s Ali Pay is a payments company similar to Paytm in India, but it also offers some more important features. It can be used for services like utility bills, movies, taxis, insurance, loans, buying and selling of properties, sending money to each other.
Ali Pay has more than 55% share in a big market like China. About 80 million (8 crores) businesses are registered on the company’s platform, while the number of users of Ali Pay Wallet is more than 1 billion.