SHANGHAI: Chinese digital payments giant Ant Financial said Friday it had raised $14 billion in its latest financing round, making it the world’s largest fintech company ahead of an expected mammoth IPO.
The cash infusion for Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba, provides fresh resources as its payments platform Alipay battles Tencent for supremacy in the vast and growing market for global digital transactions and other financial services.
Ant said in a statement that the funds will be invested in new technologies and to accelerate Alipay’s expansion abroad and into new sectors.
Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay are China’s online-payments leaders, profiting handsomely as consumers throw themselves into e-commerce, ordering goods and services via mobile apps and online.
Ant Financial did not provide a total value for the company, but Bloomberg News recently reported it was raising funds at a $150 billion valuation.
Bloomberg said the latest round makes the company, based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, the world’s largest fintech firm.
Ant Financial is believed to be planning an IPO expected to become one of the largest in years, amid speculation it could list on one of China’s two exchanges.
Alibaba and other big tech companies such as Baidu and Tencent previously chose to list on Wall Street or in Hong Kong.
But China has been making moves to encourage future listings on domestic markets to keep a new generation of technology titans closer to home as it pushes to challenge the US for primacy in the strategic sector.
Ant Financial says Alipay and its overseas partners in several countries serve around 870 million annual active users globally, and over 15 million small businesses in China.
Ant said the latest financing came from unnamed domestic investors, as well as foreign entities including Singapore wealth funds GIC and Temasek Holdings, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and global private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
China’s Ant Financial raises $14 billion to become biggest fintech firm
China’s Ant Financial raises $14 billion to become biggest fintech firm
QatarEnergy announces force majeure following Iran attacks: statement
DOHA: Qatar’s state-run energy firm on Wednesday declared force majeure following attacks on two of its main facilities that halted liquefied natural gas production and as Iran pressed missile and drone attacks across the Gulf.
“Further to the announcement by QatarEnergy to stop production of liquefied natural gas and associated products, QatarEnergy has declared Force Majeure to its affected buyers,” the company said in a statement.
QatarEnergy invoked the clause, which shields it from penalties and potential breach of contract claims from clients, after stopping LNG production on Monday.
Iranian drones attacked two of the company’s main production hubs in Ras Laffan Industrial City, 80 km north of Doha and in Mesaieed 40 km south of the Qatari capital, Doha’s ministry of defense said at the time.
The Gulf state is one of the world’s top liquefied natural gas producers, alongside the US, Australia and Russia.
On Tuesday, QatarEnergy said it would halt some downstream production of some products including urea, polymers, methanol, aluminum and others.
Qatar shares the world’s largest natural gas reservoir with Iran.
QatarEnergy estimates the Gulf state’s portion of the reservoir, the North Field, holds about 10 percent of the world’s known natural gas reserves.
In recent years, Qatar has inked a series of long-term LNG deals with France’s Total, Britain’s Shell, India’s Petronet, China’s Sinopec and Italy’s Eni, among others.
