Ant Group's US$34.4b dual listing is 872 times oversubscribed

[HONG KONG] The domestic retail book of Ant Group's US$34.4 billion dual listing was 872 times oversubscribed as individual investors in China scrambled for a slice of the world's largest initial public offering (IPO), a company filing showed.

Ant is poised to raise about US$17.2 billion on Shanghai's STAR Market and roughly the same in Hong Kong, shattering the record set by Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) with its US$29.4 billion listing last December.

Investors are rushing to buy into the fast-growing Chinese fintech firm, which operates the country's biggest payments platform and other financial services, despite risks of greater scrutiny at home and abroad.

The oversubcription equates to investment interest of about US$596.76 billion.

Hangzhou-based Ant, backed by e-commerce behemoth Alibaba , is selling 1.67 billion shares on the Nasdaq-style STAR Market before a so-called greenshoe option for a 15 per cent overallotment of shares.

The company which on Monday set the price of the Shanghai leg at US$10.27 per share, was offering 4 per cent of the initial shares to mainly retail investors across the country, having earmarked 80 per cent of the domestic offering to 29 strategic investors who will be locked up for at least one year.

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The remaining 16 per cent of the Shanghai leg had been allotted to non-strategic institutional investors who subscribed for about 76 billion shares, roughly 284 times the initial tranche, according to Ant's filing on Monday.

REUTERS