Knight Investment Limited shows why China’s IPO market still has plenty of potential with Ant Financial being the #1 front runner.

HONG KONG, HONG KONG, HONG KONG, July 25, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Ant Financial is undoubtedly one of the hottest companies in fin-tech today. The sheer size of its user base and the financial services it covers within its group of companies makes it arguably the largest of its peers globally.

Knight Investment drills down what makes this such an exciting prospect and highlights the advantages Ant Financial has over its domestic competitors.

In the first half of 2018, China’s fin-tech enterprises raised around 230 billion yuan ($35 billion), over 80 percent of the global total, and three giants took more than half of the amount fundraised in China.

According to data, at least 569 fin-tech investment and fundraises took place globally in the first six months of this year, involving a total of about 276 billion yuan, almost twice that of 2017 and a year-on-year increase of 346.3 percent.

Three fin-tech giants – Ant Financial, Du Xiaoman Financial and JD Finance (which are the financial arms of Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com Inc. respectively) – have raised about 120 billion yuan in total, more than half of the total Chinese domestic financing.

Where Ant Financial Stands Out

Looking at all the rounds of financing around the world, top eight ranked by amount raised are all Chinese companies. Ant Financial’s pre-IPO round ranked first, obtaining a total of $14 billion. Also, on the list are JD Finance and Du Xiaoman Finance, which acquired $2 billion and $1.9 billion of strategic investment respectively.

On a global scale, there have been 569 known fin-tech fundraises since the start of 2018, with a total amount raised at around 276 billion yuan. The amount in the month of June along was as high as 116.1 billion yuan, the highest amount in a month since 2016.

Most of the global fin-tech fundraises in the first half of 2018 took place in China, the United States, and India. Among them, there were 330 fundraises for Chinese companies accounting for 58 percent of the global total; the United States and India ranked second and third, with 80 and 70 fundraises respectively, followed by Singapore and the United Kingdom with 25 and 16 cases. In terms of amount, Chinese enterprises obtained 230 billion yuan of financing, accounting for 83.3 percent of the global total.

It is also reported that the total global amount raised by fin-tech companies in March and June was as high as 93.6 billion yuan and 116.1 billion yuan respectively. In those two months, the amount raised in China, the United States and India combined accounted for 94.8 percent of the global total.

Knight Investment believes that Ant Financial is heading towards a status normally held by the likes of Amazon, Google and Facebook and that it has the potential to be the first Chinese companies to fully challenge them on their own domestic markets.

Ant Financial has 520mm users, 82% of whom are on mobile. In mobile payments in China, it has a market share of 54%, ahead of WeChat’s 38%. On Alibaba’s last Singles Day or Nov. 11, 2017, Alipay processed nearly $25.9 billion, or something like 325K orders per second. Revenues for 2017 topped $8.9 billion with Alipay accounting for roughly 55% of the total.

“Ant Financial perfectly embodies what we now expect in a leading fin-tech focused, financial services provider.” Said James Warner, Senior Adviser at Knight Investment Limited, “the support it has seen in its round of pre-IPO funding only confirms what everyone is saying, Ant Financial will be the top IPO of 2018 and a key player beyond.”

The markets are used to big Chinese IPO listings now and there have been a fair share of successes, Alibaba Group, the owner-turned-affiliate-turned-shareholder of Ant Financial, was valued at $140 billion when it went public in 2014. Now, Alibaba’s spinoff payment platform Ant Financial was valued at more than $150 billion in their pre-IPO round last month.

Alibaba Group stock is up over 100% since its debut in September 2014, with the same leaders and innovators behind Alibaba being behind Ant Financial, and the company’s growth and development can be seen emulating that of its parent, its listing success is almost entirely guaranteed.

To find out more about Ant Financial and the opportunities Knight Investment Limited see’s within this sector, contact us at info@knight-investment.com or visit our website www.knight-investment.com to find out more about their services and products available.

Jason Fong
Knight Investment Limited
+85258086209
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