Alibaba's Ant team prepares for IPO, tours Silicon Valley

New York

A TEAM of executives from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's banking and payments arm recently visited Silicon Valley to size up potential investments and lay the groundwork for an initial public offering expected as soon as next year.

Ant Financial is a behemoth in China, where it serves more than 450 million customers and provides services from wealth management and insurance to credit checks and consumer loans. The company has ambitions of becoming a global powerhouse. But Ant remains a curiosity in much of the world and will have to work hard to persuade foreigners to give their financial information and money to a Chinese entity.

Executive chair Lucy Peng, in San Francisco last week with fellow executives, understands the challenges and said an IPO will give Ant an opportunity to tell its story, provide transparency to investors and raise money for acquisitions. In her first interview with the international media, Ms Peng said many peopl…