Ant Group set to go public in Shanghai and Hong Kong listing

Chinese fintech firm Ant Group has begun the process of a concurrent initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong, CNBC reports.

Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, said today that it would list its shares on both the Shanghai stock exchange’s STAR — a Nasdaq-style tech board — and the Hong Kong stock exchange. The dual listing will help Ant “accelerate its goal of digitizing the service industry in China,” the company said.

“Becoming a public company will enhance transparency to our stakeholders, including customers, business partners, employees, shareholders and regulators,” Ant chief executive, Eric Jing, said in a statement. “Through our commitment to serving the under-served, we make it possible for the whole of society to share our growth.”

Ant did not disclose how much it was seeking to raise in the dual IPOs or when it would go public. The firm is best known as the firm behind the Alipay app, which alongside Tencent's WeChat Pay has become a wildly popular alternative to cash in China.

It is the world’s largest so-called “unicorn” company, with a reported valuation of US$150 billion.