Alibaba gains new admirers with its Singles' Day asset-backed securities

Hong Kong

ALIBABA Group Holding has now been ramping up its Singles' Day online shopping frenzy for eight years, but, this time, it has added a new ingredient to the celebrity-studded extravaganza: securitisation.

Last week, a unit of Alibaba-backed Ant Financial sold four billion renminbi or yuan securities backed against small loans granted to consumers on Nov 11, also known as "Double 11" day. This is a festival that started in Nanjing in the 1990s to celebrate singlehood, but has since turned into the world's largest online shopping day.