Payment juggernaut, Ant Group, intends to raise $34.5 billion in its dual initial public offering (IPO) after setting the price for its shares on Monday, making it the biggest listing in modern history.
The Chinese financial hotspot had earlier disclosed that it would divide its stock issuance equally across China's major stock exchanges, including Shanghai and Hong Kong, issuing 1.67 billion new shares at each of those exchanges.
Ant Group’s Shanghai-listed shares will be quoted at 68.8 yuan each. Therefore, the issuing of 1.67 billion shares would raise $17.23 billion. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-listed shares have been priced at 80 Hong Kong dollars each, raising 133.65 billion Hong Kong dollars ($17.24 billion).
Producing a return of at least $34.5 billion, this would be the largest initial public offer in recent memory, ahead of previous record-holder Saudi Aramco, which raised about $29 billion.