Nothing would say forgiveness like an Ant Group IPO

NOW that Alibaba Group has split into pieces, the race is on to see which of its six Baby Babas will be first to list shares on a public bourse. After years of scrutiny, including a record fine, an initial public offering (IPO) for any of Alibaba’s divisions would act as a de facto thumbs up from Chinese regulators. The real prize, though, would be the public sale of gargantuan affiliate Ant Group.

Alibaba’s grocery chain Freshippo is working with China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and Morgan Stanley to prepare for a Hong Kong listing, Bloomberg News reported last week. The unit was valued at around US$10 billion in January 2022, when it was considering a new round of funding. This figure may have fallen or risen since then, but is minuscule compared to that of other divisions.

Under the old structure, this retail business was part of the China Commerce group, which became the Taobao Tmall Commerce Group after the split announced in March. Taobao Tmall was the only division not given the freedom to immediately spin off and IPO, though it appears that sub-units can do so – which means that Freshippo may become the first.