The largest initial public offering (IPO) in global financial history broke records in Shanghai and Hong Kong, soaking up more than US$3 trillion from retail investors, setting off frenzied bids for the shares of Ant Group.
A record 19.05 trillion yuan (US$2.85 trillion) of bids were received from retail investors for Ant's shares on Shanghai's Star Market, exceeding the supply of shares by 870 times. In Hong Kong, 1.55 million retail investors, or about one-fifth of the city's population, poured in HK$1.3 trillion (US$167.7 billion) for the shares when the book closed at noon on Friday, overbidding by 394 times, according to people familiar with the matter.
The IPO has already mopped up more money than the stock sale by Chinese bottled water producer Nongfu Spring's HK$677.7 billion. The number of mom-and-pop investors in Ant Group will also exceed the record when 970,000 people submitted bids for the shares of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in 2006, according to stock exchange data.
Retail investors submitted a record 19.05 trillion yuan (US$2.85 trillion) in subscription money for Ant's share offering on the Star Market, a board of technology stocks in Shanghai. It amounted to 872 times oversubscription, the firm said in a Shanghai exchange filing late on Thursday.
Ant Group offered 1.67 billion shares each in Hong Kong and Shanghai to raise about US$34.5 billion, making it the world's biggest IPO. Including a 15 per cent overallotment in each leg, the total size of the IPO will increase to US$39.67 billion.
