Alibaba's Ant Group starts concurrent IPO process in Shanghai, Hong Kong

Ant Group, the fintech arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said on Monday that it had started the process of a concurrent initial public offering on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style Star Market and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The world's most valuable tech "unicorn" said in a release that the listings will help the company accelerate its goal of digitising the service industry in China, develop global markets with partners and expand investment in technology and innovation.

Ant did not disclose the size, timetable or other details of the offering in the release.

"The innovative measures implemented by SSE STAR market and the SEHK have opened the doors for global investors to access leading-edge technology companies from the most dynamic economies in the world and for those companies to have greater access to the capital markets," said Eric Jing, executive chairman of Ant Group.

A concurrent listing of Ant - one of the world's most hotly-anticipated IPOs - would be a boost to both cities' status as capital market centres.

Shanghai's new economy-focused Star Market was launched last June modeled on the Nasdaq and featuring a US-style IPO system in arguably China's boldest attempt at capital market reform yet.

Hong Kong implemented listing reforms in 2018 that paved the way for tech firms with weighted voting rights and for early-stage biotechnology companies to list.