Recent transactions of unlisted shares in Chinese fintech giant Ant Financial would value the company at around USD$200 billion, according to sources speaking to Reuters.
The sources said that small holdings of shares in Ant Financial were traded in the secondary market late last year to imply a value of $200 billion.
A 2018 fundraising previously gave Ant Financial an implied value of $150 billion, to make it one of the world’s most highly valued private concerns.
According to the sources Ant Financial is currently accelerating plans to list in Hong Kong and mainland China, while company advisers have approached potential buyers of unlisted shares to help clean up its shareholder base.
IPO plans could be hampered by the fact that some holders of Ant Financial shares have already placed them into wealth management products, which would obscure legal ownership.
Ant Financial is an affiliate of Jack Ma’s Alibaba, and responsible for operating the Alipay payments and online wealth management platform.
According to figures from Alibaba Alipay and its e-wallet affiliates have around 1.2 billion annual active users, of whom 900 million are located within China.
In 2019 Alibaba swapped its rights to 37.5% of Ant Financial’s pre-tax profits for one third of equity.
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