• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

2

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem

1

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation

2

Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock

3

Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
Finance

Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group files for IPO looking to smash an all-time record

By
Lulu Yilun Chen
Lulu Yilun Chen
and
Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Lulu Yilun Chen
Lulu Yilun Chen
and
Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Down Arrow Button Icon
August 25, 2020, 8:24 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai to bankroll its expansion in financial services and bolster its lead as China’s largest online payments platform.

The Hangzhou-based company will issue no less than 10% in new shares of its total capital, according to its filing with the Shanghai exchange. Ant generated 72.5 billion yuan ($10.5 billion) in revenue in the first half, after full-year sales of 120.6 billion yuan in 2019, it said. The firm posted a profit of 21.2 billion yuan in the first half.

The crown jewel of the sprawling Alibaba empire, Ant has been accelerating its evolution into an online mall for everything from loans and travel services to food delivery, in a bid to win back shoppers lost to Tencent Holdings Ltd. With data from a billion users of its Alipay app at its back, Ant is pushing broadly into financial services, delivering technology such as artificial intelligence, robo investing and lending platforms.

The simultaneous listing could mark one of the biggest debuts in years, and even top Saudi Aramco’s record $29 billion IPO, a person familiar has said. The firm is targeting a valuation of about $225 billion, based on an IPO of about $30 billion if markets are favorable, people familiar with the matter have said.

The company will use the proceeds to expand cross-border payments and enhance its research and development capabilities, according to the filing, which didn’t provide a share price range or the amount it intends to raise in the IPO.

Unlike Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Ant decided against listing in the U.S. at a time of increased scrutiny by the Trump administration of Chinese companies and warnings to U.S. endowment funds to offload their stakes in U.S.-listed Chinese businesses. Ant’s Shanghai listing marks a victory for the city’s exchange, and is part of an effort by China to establish its own capital markets as tensions with the U.S. escalate.

Alibaba is Ant’s largest shareholder, with a 33% stake. Hangzhou Junao, an entity that is owned by key Ant and Alibaba executives, owns 20.66%, while Hangzhou Junhan, which holds shares on behalf of Ant employees, owns a 29.86% stake.

Ant picked China International Capital Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley for its Hong Kong offering. Credit Suisse was hired as a joint global coordinator for the Hong Kong deal, according to people familiar. Representatives for Ant and Credit Suisse declined to comment.

CICC and CSC Financial Co. will lead the Shanghai portion. The company said it would raise 48 billion yuan in Shanghai as a placeholder, but companies typically exceed that indication in their offerings.

Alipay Transactions

The preliminary IPO filing shed some light on Ant’s reach. Alipay’s total transaction volume reached 118 trillion yuan in the 12 months ended in June. The app had more than 1 billion users and 711 million monthly active users. More than 80 million merchants used Alipay to conduct business and Ant partnered with more than 2,000 financial institutions.

The company is also seeing a shift in its revenue structure, generating a greater contribution from technology services fees. The contribution from digital payments and merchants services fell 7.1 percentage points to 35.9% in the first half from the end of last year.

Its digital finance technology platform, which includes services credit, investment and insurance tech operating under the brands including Huabei, Jiebei and Yu’E Bao, accounted for 63.4% of revenue in the first half, up from 56.2% at the end of 2019.

The sale offers a potential windfall for a raft of U.S. private equity firms, including Silver Lake Management LLC, Warburg Pincus LLC and Carlyle Group Inc., which all invested at least $500 million in the firm’s latest 2018 funding round, people familiar with the matter have said. Credit Suisse Group AG also put in $100 million.

Ant’s IPO helps Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., which is seeing a renaissance of tech listings after it relaxed rules in the wake of losing China’s biggest tech firms — including Alibaba — to New York. Alibaba returned with a $13 billion secondary listing last year in Hong Kong.

Like Alibaba, Ant has hit the brakes on its U.S. expansion as political and trade tensions between America and China have escalated. Ma said in 2018 that his promise to create 1 million U.S. jobs was impossible to fulfill because of the trade tensions.

Instead, Ant has focused it offshore ambitions on building its presence in the rest of Asia, working with nine payment startups including the owners of Paytm in India and GCash in the Philippines.

Domestically, it’s expanding into consumer and technology services. Its technology solutions include services in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and risk control. Ant aims to assist banks to dole out loans to consumers, and partner with brands to attract and manage customers.

About the Authors
By Lulu Yilun Chen
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By Bloomberg
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Finance

‘It’s called StreetEasy, not StreetHard’: Mamdani cracks down on scourge of ‘housefishing’ and ‘real estate slop’
Real EstateHousing
‘It’s called StreetEasy, not StreetHard’: Mamdani cracks down on scourge of ‘housefishing’ and ‘real estate slop’
By Tatiana SatauaJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago
As Washington panics about Chinese AI, Jensen Huang says open-source models like Kimi are ‘excellent’ and should be embraced, not banned
AIChina
As Washington panics about Chinese AI, Jensen Huang says open-source models like Kimi are ‘excellent’ and should be embraced, not banned
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 22, 2026
4 hours ago
Man holding his hands open
InvestingStock
A new group of stocks is transforming global equities markets. Meet ‘Memi,’ the $3 trillion sector fueled by AI’s insatiable hunger for memory chips
By Amanda GerutJuly 22, 2026
5 hours ago
Scott Bessent speaks inside the Oval Office.
EconomyU.S. Department of the Treasury
Scott Bessent casually says the U.S. has more than $1 trillion in gold—and that it doesn’t matter for the dollar
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 22, 2026
6 hours ago
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to US President Donald Trump in front of a window.
EconomyDonald Trump
Carney and Trump agree to speed up trade negotiations a day after Trump puts a 50% tariff on Canadian goods
By The Associated Press and Jim MorrisJuly 22, 2026
6 hours ago
Trump Accounts draw 6.5 million sign-ups, but some families are still waiting on the promised $1,000 funding
InvestingDonald Trump
Trump Accounts draw 6.5 million sign-ups, but some families are still waiting on the promised $1,000 funding
By The Associated Press and Moriah BalingitJuly 22, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
Cybersecurity
OpenAI says its AI models secretly broke out of a secure test environment and hacked into AI company Hugging Face in order to cheat on an evaluation
By Jeremy Kahn and Emily ForliniJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
Success
Mark Cuban says he has the solution to growing income inequality, and it's to reward every employee—from CEO to janitor—with company stock
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
AI
Mathematicians grapple with a ‘very rapid and very unsettling change’ as AI cracks yet another century-old problem
By Eva RoytburgJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
8 hours ago
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
Success
Despite a $156 million contract, Knicks star Jalen Brunson still calls his parents for financial advice any time he makes a big purchase
By Emma BurleighJuly 21, 2026
1 day ago
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
Success
‘I want to die broke’: Billionaire philanthropist Denny Sanford dies after giving away $4 billion
By Sydney LakeJuly 20, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.