Emailed on October 30th, 2020 in The Friday Forward

Jack Ma’s Ant Group is seeking around $34.4 billion in a pair of IPOs in Hong Kong and Shanghai that could edge out Saudi Aramco’s $25.6 billion haul in 2019 to become the largest public offering of all time. 

Hangzhou-based Ant will sell 1.67 billion shares in Hong Kong for HK$80 (around $10) per share and an equivalent amount on Shanghai’s tech-heavy STAR board. The offering could take in an additional $5.2 billion if all over-allotment options are exercised. 

And that looks likely. Ant Group took in more than $3 trillion in orders from retail investors across its dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Roughly 19.1 trillion yuan ($2.9 trillion) worth of bids was raised in the Shanghai portion of the IPO, according to regulatory filings. The sum surpasses the exchange's supply of shares by 872 times. The Hong Kong debut pulled in 1.3 trillion Hong Kong dollars ($168 billion), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. That's roughly 389 times the shares set to be made available.

The IPO is a banner moment for China’s domestic stock exchanges and its venture capital ecosystem. Ant has reportedly raised some $20 billion since 2015, which represents more than a third of VC investment in China-based fintechs over the period, according to PitchBook data. 

The fintech company’s largest segment is its credit platform, which accounted for 39% of Ant Group’s 72.5 billion yuan (about $10.8 billion) revenue in the first six months of 2020. Digital payments made up 36% of revenue.

The company is targeting Nov. 5 for its Hong Kong listing.