Alipay, Chinas most widely used online payment platform, is seen as a crucial part of Alibaba Group Holdings business, which ranges from ecommerce to entertainment, globaltimes.cn reports. Ant Financial is currently valued between USD 35 billion and USD 40 billion.
Tthe firm had selected China International Capital Corp (CICC) as its financial advisor, citing documents from private equity firm CDH Investments, the source cites. Around 10% of the company will be sold to strategic investors in the private placement. News magazine Caixin, cited by the source, reported in February 2015 that Chinas State-backed social security fund, the Postal Savings Bank of China, and CDB Capital, an investment arm of China Development Bank, would be in discussions for stakes of 5%, 3% and 3% respectively.
Ant Financial is controlled by Alibabas Executive Chairman Jack Ma Yun and other senior Alibaba executives, after the company spun off Alipay in 2011 from the rest of the firm. Ma has said on several occasions that he plans to eventually list Ant Financial. Previously, he told reporters there was no timetable yet for the IPO and it was not decided where the listing would happen, although he has been looking at Asia as a location. Ant Financials revenue jumped 92% to CNY 10.2 billion in 2014, and it made CNY 2.6 billion in net profit, representing a margin of 26%. Net profit is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 64% from 2015 to 2017.
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