Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of China’s Alibaba Group, has reportedly been valued at $150bn following a $10bn funding round.
Contributions to the round came from a selection of investors including, Carlyle, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake Partners, according to a report by the Financial Times, which cites people involved in the transaction.
Other participants include Temasek, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and BlackRock. The company had to turn away offers from a number of other investors, the article reports.
All investors into Ant will receive not receive equity but convertible instruments instead, the article reports. This is due to China’s regulations around foreign ownership of companies, but terms are expected to relax in the future. These convertible instruments will be exchanged for shares when Ant goes public, it said.
According to a previous report by the Wall Street Journal, Ant Financial was looking to raise at least $9bn for the funding round, having increased its target past its initial $5bn goal.
The company’s $150bn valuation is the double what it was during its last funding round in April 2016. Its previous funding round was a $4.5bn capital injection from China-based investors including China Construction Bank and China Investment Corp.
Ant, which was carved out of e-commerce giant Alibaba seven years ago, offers the Alipay mobile payment service, digital banking and other financial services. One of the main factors behind its vaultion is down to oversee expansion plans.
Last year, the company continued to expand its reach outside of China with a $200m investment in South Korean mobile giant Kakao’s finance subsidiary Kakao Pay. Kakao Talk, the firm’s messaging service, counts 48 million users and is installed on as many as 95% of South Korean smartphones.
Ant Financial also purchased Lazada’s payments arm HelloPay. The South-East Asian payments processor will rebrand to Alipay Singapore, Alipay Malaysia, Alipay Indonesia and Alipay Philippines in its respective markets.
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