Ant Group aims to raise $34.4 billion in biggest IPO
Ant Group -- the fintech company behind China's largest online payments platform -- aims to raise up to $34.4 billion through initial public offerings, making it the biggest IPO ever and edging out Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion IPO last December.
Regulatory filings released Monday showed the deal would value Ant -- backed by billionaire Jack Ma -- at more than $313 billion.
Though its looming market debut has been clouded by growing regulatory scrutiny of its lucrative consumer credit business as well as a U.S. State Department proposal to add the fintech group to a trade blacklist.
Investors, however, have largely shrugged off those concerns as they bet on continued rapid growth of a group that also operates China's biggest mobile payments system -- Alipay -- and distributes wealth management and insurance products.
Ant is splitting the IPO evenly between Hong Kong and Shanghai, selling 1.67 billion shares on each exchange.
