The Ant Group provides digital payment services and operates digital finance technology platforms. The Chinese giant is likely to pull off the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history, hoping to raise $34.4 billion. If successful, it will overshadow the IPO debut of Saudi Aramco in December 2019, which had raised a then-record $29.4 billion. Here are some charts giving some perspective on how massive the digital payments company is at its IPO, comparing it to its peers and yes, even some countries' gross domestic product (GDP).
The Biggest IPO: Ant Group is likely to pull off the largest IPO in history in a dual-listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai in November. Three Chinese companies already make up the current top-five, with the first American company - General Motors - at number 7.
Corporate Peers: Ant Financial's IPO would value the company at about $315 billion, which will be bigger than the largest bank in the United States - JPMorgan Chase & Co, whose market cap was $296 billion as of October 30, 2020. Ant is set to be larger than payment rival Paypal Holdings Inc., media giant Walt Disney Co. The company's valuation will be among the largest financial companies in the world like Visa and Mastercard.
Bigger than a few countries GDP: The IPO is likely to value Ant Group at US$315 billion. This will make the company worth more than the gross domestic products (GDP) of Egypt, Bangladesh, Chile, Pakistan, Finland, and Vietnam. These countries are among the top 50 in the world when arranged by GDP, with figures varying between $200 and $300 billion.
