Ant Group IPO: Everything We Know So Far

Ant Group is one of the most powerful Fintech companies in the world. It owns the world's largest digital payment platform Alipay, which services over 80 million merchants and 1.3 billion users globally. It also operates Tianhong Yu'e Bao, the biggest money-market fund in the world, with nearly 600 million users.

The Ant Group IPO was scheduled for October 2020, but the Chinese government suspended the listing due to risks of financial cataclysm, among others.

This article discusses everything we know about the Ant Group IPO, including its plans going forward.

About Ant Group

Ant Group is one of the world's biggest and fastest-growing fintech companies, raking in an annual revenue of over $20 billion. The group operates the AliPay electronic payment service for Alibaba's Tmall, Taobao Marketplace, and AliExpress e-commerce.

Formerly known as Ant Financial, Ant Group serves over 1.3 billion users and 80 million merchants.

It was founded in October 2014 by Chinese business magnate and investor Jack Ma Yun, who's the fifth-wealthiest person in China and the 34th wealthiest person in the world.

Before Ant Group, Ma Yun co-founded Alibaba Group, a Chinese multinational tech company, and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm.

Ant Group provides various financial services, including money-market investment, asset management, technical solutions to payment companies, real-time cash transfers, and loan solutions to consumers and enterprises.

Though mostly used in China, Ant Group offers its services across most parts of the world. Alipay has partnerships with various European digital wallet apps, like MOMO (Spain), Bluecode (Austria), ePassi (Finland), Pagaqui (Portugal), and, most recently, Barclay (UK).

Ant Group sought to expand its services to the United States, but U.S. authorities declined because the company reportedly represents "modes of finance" the government cannot control.

Ant Group Funding Rounds

Ant Group has raised some of the biggest funding rounds in the world, totalling $28.5 billion over seven rounds. The group's most recent funding occurred in November 2022.

On Jun 8, 2018, Ant Group raised the biggest-ever single funding by a private company. The $14 billion funding round increased the group's valuation to around $150 billion, easily making it one of the world's most valuable—and powerful—financial firms.

Ant Group Plans for Initial Public Offering (IPO)

At the time of writing, Ant Group has yet to announce an official IPO date.

The company initially filed for a dual listing in 2020 at a valuation of $200 billion, putting it on par with PayPal, which, at the time, was valued at $237 billion.

But several days before the IPO was to take place, Jack Ma was said to have made negative comments about the Chinese Communist Party and regulators for their focus on risk mitigation.

Ma and several of Ant’s executives were summoned to a meeting with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, People’s Bank of China, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission to discuss Ma's comments and views about the financial sector.

Two days later, the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended Ant Group from the IPO listing, stating that the company failed to meet the issuance and listing conditions of the stock exchange. This forced Ant to withdraw from the Hong Kong listing and postpone the IPO indefinitely.

As of June 2023, Ant Group is more focused on business optimisation and rectification than going public. In an interview with one of Ant's senior executives, the company claimed that Ant has no plans to relaunch its IPO. No further comment was given when asked to elaborate.

How Does Ant Group Make Money?

Ant's primary source of revenue comes from Alipay, a payment service that charges vendors transaction fees based on volume percentage. Over 80 million businesses are using Alipay, and serves over 700 million customers a month.

The company also charges financial institutions, like commercial banks, insurers, trust firms, and mutual fund managers, sizable service fees to use its technologies.

Some of these technologies include InvestmentTech, a wealth management business; CreditTech, a consumer credit business; and InsureTech, an insurance business that covers life, property, health, and casualty.

CreditTech encompasses 40% of Ant's technology revenue, followed by InvestmentTech at 15.6% and InsureTech at less than 10%.

Final Thoughts

Ant Group has yet to relaunch its IPO. Chinese authorities have given a tentative green light to revive the company's plans to go public in 2022, but the company is more focused on business optimisation and rectification than anything else. A company spokesman stated that Ant has "no plans to initiate" an IPO in the foreseeable future.

The information in this article is well-researched and factual. Still, it contains opinions also, and IT IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE and should not be interpreted as such, do not make any financial decisions based on the information in this article; we are not financial advisors. We are journalists. You should always consult with a professional before making any investment decisions. We hold no stock or interests in any of the Companies discussed on this website/app.