Ant Group, which owns Chinese major mobile payment platform Alipay, announced it has commenced the process of a concurrent initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, according to a press release from the company on Monday.
The company, which was known as Ant Financial before June this year, has not disclosed details on the IPO size or timing.
However, Reuters reported earlier this month that Ant is seeking a valuation of more than USD 200 billion in a Hong Kong IPO. When contacted by KrASIA on July 8, two Ant Financial spokesmen separately denied the Reuters report as “incorrect information”.
“The innovative measures implemented by Shanghai Star market and the Hong Kong stock exchange have opened the doors for global investors to access leading edge technology companies from the most dynamic economies in the world and for those companies to have greater access to the capital markets,” said executive chairman Eric Jing of Ant, which is 33% owned by Alibaba, in the press release on Monday.
This article is part of KrASIA’s “China Brief” section, where KrASIA’s reporters will provide quick daily updates about the tech ecosystem in China.