The Biggest IPO of All Time
Ant Financial will attempt to launch the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever, breaking the record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019; $29 billion raised. This ain’t a little ant, for sure!
It’s a unicorn in the venture capital world, but a fintech flying under the radar for most later investors. It’s an arm of Alibaba spun-off to run Alipay, which consumers use to purchase a huge volume of goods in China. It offers almost every financial service you can think of.
It’s applied to list on both the Hong Kong index, rattled by the CCP’s security law, and the new tech-heavy Shanghai STAR market. It’s set to attract investors looking for both blue-sky potential, and fundamentalists who want to see positive cash flows and all that “boring” stuff!
But the challenge for American investors is how to get in on this dual-listing, as a lot of brokers don’t offer new issues this far afield. Your best bet is the Renaissance International IPO exchange-traded fund (ETF), which rises and falls with newly-listed overseas companies.
The listing won’t be on Wall Street, New York, the financial capital of the world, so we’ll have to wait and see if the Trump administration considers that a snub. Keep an eye on it!
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.