Please try another search
By Scott Murdoch and Julie Zhu
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ant Group Co Ltd has received approval from China's securities regulator for the Hong Kong leg of its roughly $35 billion dual listing, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.
The Chinese financial technology firm plans to list in Hong Kong and on Shanghai's STAR Market simultaneously in what could be the world's largest initial public offering (IPO), surpassing Saudi Aramco 's (SE:2222) $29.4 billion record set in December.
The firm plans to seek listing approval from Hong Kong's stock exchange on Monday, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as the matter was not yet public.
Ant, backed by Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (N:BABA) (HK:9988), declined to comment.
Refinitiv publication IFR reported the approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) earlier on Monday. It also said the CSRC is set to approve Ant's Star Market IPO this week.
Ant plans to start a brief pre-marketing period this week before opening order books next week, IFR reported, saying Ant's shares are likely to start trading "a few days" after the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.
Ant originally aimed to meet Hong Kong's bourse on Sept. 24 and launch the IPO after the week-long Chinese National Day holiday that ended on Oct. 8, sources previously told Reuters.
Last week, sources said the CSRC was probing a potential conflict of interest in the planned listing, delaying approval.
The regulator was looking into the role of Alipay, Ant's flagship payment platform, as retail investors' only third-party channel to buy into five Chinese funds investing in the IPO.
Ant aims to sell 10% to 15% of its enlarged share capital in the IPO, split evenly between Hong Kong and Shanghai. It does not plan to offer a cornerstone tranche in Hong Kong in anticipation of strong demand from institutional investors.
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.