Jack Ma, Founder, Ant Group. Photo credit: World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)/Qilai Shen, licensed under Creative Commons

Ant Group, the Chinese fintech giant founded by entrepreneur Jack Ma, has raised its target valuation for its imminent public listing to at least $280 billion, up from previous estimates of $250 billion, as first reported [paywalled] by Bloomberg. Ant Group, currently the highest-valued private technology company globally, is set for a public listing that’s expected to raise over $30 billion for the company. Ahead of its public listing, Ant has courted big-time investors to chip in big investments, one example being Singapore’s GIC which plans to invest over $1 billion in the company’s public offering.

Ant Group is expected to hold dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai for its public offering. With a targeted raise of over $30 billion, it’s expected to surpass the current world record for a public offering which is held by the oil giant Saudi Aramco after having raised $29 billion in its public offering last year. Before Aramco, the record was held by Alibaba ($21.8 billion), the company that the Ant Group was spun out of. It’s such that after holding a record IPO as the then CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma is poised to clinch yet another with the Ant Group.

Ant Group is best-known for its Alipay payments app which is used by over 1 billion persons in China. The company also offers other fintech services such as wealth management, lending, and credit rating. 

Ant has a very strong business, having churned out $3.5 billion in profits in the six months between October 2019 to March 2020, as indicated by public filings. For the full year 2019, the company reported revenue of 120.6 billion yuan ($18 billion).

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