One of China’s wealthiest businessmen says the market listing of his online payment processor and microlending company Ant Group will set the largest valuation at market launch in history.
Speaking at the Bund Global Financial Summit in Shanghai on Saturday, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who is worth close to $50 billion and is among the most powerful men in China, said Ant Group will enter markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai as the highest-valued listing in history.
“It’s the first time that the pricing of such a big listing, the largest in human history, has been determined outside New York City,” Ma said.
Ant Group is the parent company of Alipay, a mobile financial supermarket that nearly 1 billion Chinese people used to process more than $15 trillion worth of financial transactions, from shopping to banking, during 2019.
“In China, you barely see anyone use cash anymore,” Wall Street Journal reporter Stella Xie said while speaking about the ubiquitous nature with which Alipay has cornered the Chinese consumer banking market. “Whether it’s to buy a soda or a pack of cigarettes, people buy things with QR codes and facial recognition.”
Alipay has also allowed millions of Chinese people, who Xie argued have been “ignored” by major Chinese banks, the opportunity to buy insurance, invest in the financial market, and save money — all with a touch of a button.
“It’s a really flexible tool that gives the average Chinese consumers and small business owners who have long been ignored by the major banks a taste of what it’s like to invest and save money and to get financing to fund operations,” Xie said. “And all of this is done through their smartphones almost instantly.”
Ma said the company’s valuation was determined on Friday but refused to confirm what the share price will be when it is listed in Hong Kong and on Shanghai’s STAR Market in the coming weeks.
“Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age,” Ma said. “We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system.”
Market analysts speculate that Ant Group could be initially worth more than $35 billion, shattering a record held by multinational petroleum and natural gas company Saudi Aramco, which reached the market at a $29 billion valuation in late 2019.
Ma co-founded Alibaba, an online shopping giant worth close to $500 billion, nearly two decades ago, and his outspoken persona has helped catapult his image as a pioneer on the frontier of a quickly modernizing financial industry.
