Ant Group gets the green light for mega IPO in Shanghai’s Star Market as China pulls out all stops to help tech champions raise funds
- Shanghai regulators are expediting Ant’s IPO hearing process to bring the fintech behemoth faster to market
- Ant IPO may surpass Aramco’s US$29.4 billion IPO and become the world’s largest-ever fundraising
Ant Group, China’s largest digital payments provider by volume, received the green light on Friday to proceed with its blockbuster listing on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style stock market just four weeks after filing, as regulators showed off their keenness to pull out all stops to help national champions raise capital.
With the nod, the paperwork for Ant Group’s estimated US$30 billion initial public offer (IPO) – the largest in global financial records – will pass to the China Securities Regulatory Commission for registration before it begins a process of marketing the shares to investors, and for setting a price, most likely in October.
Ant Group’s separate application for a dual listing in Hong Kong is still wending its way through the listing committee of the city’s stock exchange, where a hearing for the IPO is likely to be scheduled some time this month, according to a source familiar with the matter. The stark contrast between the two exchanges underscores how Shanghai’s Star Market could balloon into a 2.8 trillion yuan (US$400 billion) financial market after a mere 12 months in operation, and eight months to conceive.
“It’s a huge positive,” said Wayne Shiong, a partner at venture capital firm China Growth Capital, referring to capital markets reforms in China. “In the past, start-ups were afraid of going public on Shanghai’s main board because they would be dwarfed by state-owned enterprises and have to go through a long, complicated IPO approval process. The Star Market is quickly maturing from a baby to a mature market – the Ant IPO is a major milestone deal.”