Ant Group sets offering price of 68.8 yuan

Ti Gong

Ant Group Co Ltd yesterday set terms for its dual-listing where the Chinese financial technology giant aims to raise up to US$34.4 billion in the world’s largest market debut, as investors scramble for a piece of the fast-growing company.

Ant, backed by e-commerce group Alibaba, is aiming to raise about US$17.2 billion in Shanghai and roughly the same amount in Hong Kong this week, Ant said in filings to the stock exchanges late yesterday.

Ant set the price tag for the Shanghai leg of its dual-listing at 68.8 yuan (US$10.27) per share, while the price was set at HK$80 (US$10.32) per share for the Hong Kong tranche, the exchange filings showed.

The deal would value Ant as a whole at more than US$313 billion, before a 15 percent greenshoe or over-allotment option is exercised. At that valuation, Ant is worth more than Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the No.1 bank by assets globally.

Ant plans to sell up to 1.67 billion shares in the Shanghai float, which is set to be the biggest IPO in China, eclipsing the record set by Agricultural Bank of China’s US$10.1 billion Shanghai float in 2010, according to Refinitiv data.

The online subscription will start on Thursday with other details such as winning lot and trading date set to be revealed next week. 

Ant, which started as a payment service for Alibaba's online retail business in 2004, has since evolved to include online banking, insurance, securities, wealth management, lending, corporate credit scoring and crowd funding.

Ant has included more than two dozen commercial banks, top insurers and sovereign wealth funds as strategic investors, such as GIC Pte, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and China’s National Council for Social Security Fund, according to a stock filing on Monday. 

Jack Ma, who is the controlling shareholder of Ant Group, suggests the pricing and listing marks a major shift for not only fintech companies but for the capital market as well. 

"It's the first time a big tech company had set prices outside New York which we didn't dare to think about three years ago," he told the Bund Summit which focused on themes such as financial and fintech regulation over the weekend. 

Ma has a combined 50.52 percent of Ant’s shares through direct and indirect shareholdings. 

Although having stepped down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, his remarks are widely circulated and viewed as the official stance of the e-commerce and fintech giant.

According to an earlier filing, Alipay processed 118 trillion yuan worth of transactions within China and 621.9 billion yuan of cross-border transactions in the 12 months to June 30.