Chinese fintech giant Ant Group is poised to raise about 230 billion yuan (about 34.3 billion U.S. dollars) in its dual initial public offering (IPO) after setting the prices for its shares on Monday, making it the biggest listing of all time.
The group said last week in its IPO prospectus that it would split its share sale equally on Shanghai's tech-heavy STAR Market and the Hong Kong stock exchange, with up to 1.67 billion shares for sale on each bourse.
Ant has priced its Shanghai-listed shares at 68.8 yuan (about 10.3 U.S. dollars) each. The issuing of 1.67 billion shares in Shanghai would raise 114.9 billion yuan (about 17.1 billion U.S. dollars).
The price tag for the Hong Kong portion of the listing has been set at 80 Hong Kong dollars apiece, which will raise 133.6 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 17.2 billion U.S. dollars).
The dual listing is expected to raise a total of roughly 34.3 billion U.S. dollars, with the possibility for that figure to increase if the IPO underwriters exercise options to sell additional shares after trading begins.
Ant's concurrent IPO will be the largest of all time, surpassing the record set by energy giant Saudi Aramco, which raised over 29 billion U.S. dollars last December.
Based on the pricing, the group's valuation will be 2.1 trillion yuan (about 313.3 billion U.S. dollars), likely to put it ahead of the current most valuable publicly-listed company in Chinese mainland stock market Kweichow Moutai, a top alcohol maker.
Ant said strategic investors have agreed to subscribe to 80 percent of the Shanghai leg of the IPO. They include Ant's former parent and e-commerce mammoth Alibaba Group. The online shopping giant will buy 730 million shares in the offering via its subsidiary Zhejiang Tmall Technology to maintain its roughly one-third stake in Ant Group.
Ant Group is expected to start trading in Hong Kong next Thursday. The company will allow subscriptions to its Shanghai shares this Thursday, but has not disclosed when the shares will begin trading.
