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Ant Group Gears Up for World’s Biggest IPO at $34.5 Billion

Ant Group Gears Up for World’s Biggest IPO at $34.5 Billion

Ant Group has set the price for its shares of its dual IPO today, and it is shaping up to be the largest public offering to-date, coming in at $34.5 billion.

The IPO will be spread equally through 1.67 billion new shares issued on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, which is expected to raise $17.24 billion (HK$133.65 billion), and 1.67 billion new shares issued on Shanghai’s Star Market, which is expected to raise $17.23 billion (¥115 billion).

Ant will debut on November 5 on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. The company has not disclosed a date for its planned offering on Shanghai’s Star Market.

Ant’s new valuation is anticipated to top $313 billion, up from an estimated value of $218 billion earlier this year. According to Statista, this valuation, when compared to U.S. megabanks, sits only below JP Morgan Chase, which has a market capitalization of $434 billion.

The anticipated $34.5 billion raise is a record amount, breaking the previous highest IPO set when oil company Saudi Aramco went public at $29.4 billion earlier this year. Ant’s parent company Alibaba holds the record for the second-highest IPO when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 and raised $24 billion. 

Alibaba plans to maintain its 33% share in Ant Group by having its subsidiary Zhejiang Tmall Technology purchase 730 million shares in the company.

As we reported earlier this year, Ant’s double-listing is intentionally avoiding U.S. markets. This is not only because of geopolitical tensions, but also to take advantage of new innovations in both Hong Kong and Shanghai markets, which offer weighted voting rights and offer more market-driven pricing than other domestic exchanges.

Ant was founded in 2014 and has more than 1.3 billion active annual users. Simon Hu is CEO.