Ahead of what’s expected to be the world’s largest IPO ever, fintech behemoth Ant Group announced a 74.28% year-on-year jump in its January–September gross profit in the latest prospectus filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The operating income in the period was RMB 118.2 billion (USD 17.6 billion), up 42.6% from last year.
Ant attributes the growth to stronger revenue from its digital fintech platform and lowered expenses in the past few months.
Since early October, millions of retail investors have flocked to the five Ant Group IPO-allocated funds sold exclusively on its own Alipay app, China’s largest third-party payment, to gain exposure to a portion of the fintech giant’s shares.
After receiving green light from regulators for the Shanghai-Hong Kong dual listing plan, the group will kick off its A-share IPO on October 29, according to the filing on Thursday.
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA; HKEX: 9988), which will be its biggest shareholder, is subscribing to 730 million of Ant’s A-shares, which equals to a fifth of the grand total of 3.34 billion new shares.
Read this: BIZ IN GRAPHICS | Decoding Ant Group’s relationship with Alibaba
This article is part of KrASIA’s “Key Stat” series, where KrASIA picks and presents the most significant figures of the day’s technology and business world.