Jack Ma says no Ant Financial IPO soon

Alibaba founder, chairman, and former CEO Jack Ma. Photo by Asia Society.

Jack Ma has put a halt to years of rumors about an imminent IPO for Alibaba’s payments arm, Ant Financial.

Speaking in front of media on Saturday, the billionaire Alibaba founder said that there’s no timeline for when Ant Financial will list, and they will only consider the IPO route – ie: the possibility of going ahead with it – two years later, reports Yicai.

The latest wave of rumors had pegged an IPO sometime 2018.

“Regarding Ant Financial going public, we don’t have a time yet and we don’t know whether it will be in China, Hong Kong or in the USA,” said Ma. “We will not really think about it in the next 12 or 18 months because there’s huge potential in inclusive financing and other tech-related opportunities. We will probably think about it two years later, but not now.”

An Alibaba representative confirmed Ma’s statements to Tech in Asia, adding that Ant Financial will focus for the next two years on growth and expansion-oriented investments.

Ma was talking on the sidelines of the launch of Southeast Asia’s “digital free trade zone,” a collaboration between Alibaba and the Malaysian government.

See: Jack Ma opens Malaysia’s ‘digital free trade zone’ with an eye to Southeast Asia’s ecommerce boom

Expansion

Ant Financial, maker of China’s top mobile wallet app, Alipay, was valued at US$60 billion by its last investment. Persistent IPO rumors in the past few years centered on Ant Financial’s blockbuster valuation – as much as US$75 billion, according to some analysts – and where the spin-off tech giant would choose to list.

The Chinese firm has been on a tear through India and Southeast Asia in the past couple of years, making a series of investments in well-established startups or larger firms that are focusing on payments and financial services.

See: Inside Jack Ma’s playbook for Ant Financial’s global expansion

This post Jack Ma says no Ant Financial IPO soon appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/ead-my-lips-no-imminent-ant-financial-ipo-says-jack-ma
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