Ant Group could raise nearly $35B in record share offering

A news-stand vendor, wearing a mask to protect against the coronavirus, sits near QR codes for Alipay and WeChat, two popular online payment system in Beijing, China on Tuesday, July 21, 2020. Ant Group, the financial technology arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, filed for a dual-listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, in what would likely be the world’s largest initial public stock offering since the coronavirus pandemic began. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

HONG KONG — China’s Ant Group will try to raise nearly $35 billion in its initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which would make it the largest share offering in history.

Alibaba-affiliated Ant Group, which operates a suite of financial products including the widely-used Alipay digital wallet in China and one of the world’s largest money market funds, will hold dual listings in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The company will raise about $34.5 billion from the share offering, which is expected to surpass oil company Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion share sale last year, making Ant Group’s offering the biggest in the world.

Ant Group would be valued at about $280 billion. If the company exercises its greenshoe option, which would allow it to sell more shares than initially planned, it could raise another $5.17 billion, taking its valuation to about $320 billion.