(Bloomberg) -- Ant Group, the parent of China’s largest mobile payment company, has picked China International Capital Corp., Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C)., JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) & Co. and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) for its Hong Kong initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.
The banks are working with billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant on the share sale in Hong Kong, which could raise about $10 billion, the people said. More advisers could be added to the offering at a later stage, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial, announced on Monday its plans to list simultaneously in Hong Kong and on China’s new tech bourse in Shanghai. The company could seek a valuation of at least $200 billion, according to the people.
Details of the offering could change as deliberations are ongoing, the people said. Representatives for Ant, CICC, Citi and JPMorgan declined to comment, while Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The crown jewel of the sprawling Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) empire, Ant has been accelerating its evolution into an online mall for everything from loans and travel services to food delivery, in a bid to claw back shoppers lost to Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY) Ltd. The company’s Chief Executive Officer Simon Hu wants people to think of Alipay as more than just the payments gateway for the world’s biggest e-commerce platform, and a niche provider of financial services. Alipay now caters to a wide array of consumer needs from groceries to wealth management, and hotel booking to loan applications.
Ant generated $2 billion in profit in the fourth quarter, based on Bloomberg calculations made from Alibaba’s filing.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
