Chinese digital payments giant Ant Group has won approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for the Hong Kong leg of its mammoth US$35bn Hong Kong and Shanghai listing and is planning to seek listing approval today from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, said people familiar with the situation.
Ant, the fintech affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, plans to start a brief pre-marketing period later this week before opening the books next week, said the people. Trading is expected to start a few days after the November 3 US presidential election.
The CSRC is also expected to approve Ant’s Shanghai Star IPO this week, said the people. Ant applied to register its Star IPO with the regulator on September 22, after winning listing approval from the Shanghai Stock Exchange on September 18.
Pricing the deal before the US election and starting trading after the election will inevitably increase market risk. Some investors, however, are shrugging off the concern.
“It’s not ideal but the deal is going to be so hot that everyone will want to grab a piece,” said a Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager.
Ant’s IPO, the world’s largest if comes to fruition, has already generated huge interest from investors worldwide, including sovereign wealth funds. China’s National Council for Social Security Fund, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and state investor Temasek Holdings are all planning to participate, said the people.
Ant’s A/H listing is expected to comprise about 11%–12% of its share capital in the base deal, split equally between Hong Kong and the Shanghai Star market.
CICC, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are the sponsors for Ant’s Hong Kong IPO, and Credit Suisse is a joint global coordinator. CICC and China Securities are sponsoring the Shanghai Star listing.
Ant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.