Alibaba's Ant Financial Aims To Raise World's Largest Ever IPO At $35B

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s BABA subsidiary Ant Financial has upsized its initial public offering valuation target by $25 billion to $250 billion, seeking to raise $35 billion, Bloomberg reported late Sunday.

The financial services company, expecting to raise $30 billion initially, saw early investor interest that led to the $5 billion hike, according to Bloomberg.

What Happened: The current valuation of $250 billion is 19% higher than the $210 billion valuation projected by Bernstein in July.

This sets the stage for Ant Group's IPO to become the biggest IPO in the world, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion capital raise, with dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Ant Group is following in the footsteps of parent Alibaba, which opted for dual listing in Hong Kong in November last year, as U.S.–China tensions flared. Jack Ma's Alibaba holds a 33% non-controlling stake in Ant Financial.

Shanghai Exchange has fast-tracked Ant Group's IPO approval, Yahoo Finance reported on Sept. 18.

Why Does It Matter: After spin-off from Alibaba’s online payment platform, Ant Financial has gradually grown and diversified its business by expanding into consumer loans, insurance, and money market funds. It reported 2019 revenue of 120.6 billion yuan and a profit of 21.1 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, Bloomberg noted.

Ant Financial's Alipay boasts 711 million active users — generating $17 trillion in payments in 12 months through June.