Ant Financial is looking to raise a new $5bn round that would take the company’s value north of $100bn; the FT reports that the new round might begin later this month; if the valuation is as much the company would be worth more than Uber who right now is worth about $68bn; the biggest reason behind such a lofty valuation is the data collected on users according to Thomas Olsen, partner at Bain consultancy. Source.
Ant Financial is planning to raise up to $5 billion which could value the company at more than $100 billion; this could potentially lead to an IPO as the company establishes a recent valuation; they last raised a round in 2016 at a valuation of around $60 billion. Source
US regulators did not sign off on Ant Financial’s acquisition of MoneyGram, but this won’t hamper their US ambitions; Last May Ant Financial did a deal with First Data, the payment infrastructure company; Ant Financial has been largely successful in China due to the unique financial system there; in the US they face other challenges which includes a more developed financial system with legacy players; it remains to be seen whether the eventual leaders in the US will be technology companies like Amazon, something we’ve seen happen in China. Source
After a yearlong battle trying to convince US regulators about their acquisition of MoneyGram, Alibaba’s Ant Financial called off the deal; having a significant presence in the US is the one area that Alibaba head Jack Ma has yet to succeed; the $1.2bn deal would have helped to establish their Alipay product immediately; this looks to potentially ratchet up trade issues between the two countries as the new administration has taken an aggressive stance towards China. Source.
As the government cracks down on riskier lenders the more established brands of Ant Financial and Lufax look to become even more dominant; China’s top ten online lenders account for 36 percent of all loans and that number looks to continue to rise as smaller lenders look to be on their way out; the top lenders use spending analysis, AI and more to determine creditworthiness of borrowers; with the rise in wealth and spending power in China the dominant fintech firms are ideally positioned. Source.
The asset-backed securities market in China saw huge growth in 2017; nonbank lenders led issuance which totaled $220 billion last year, a 90% increase from 2016; now issuance of consumer loans is slowing down due to increased involvement from Chinese financial regulators; a part of the slowdown was due to Ant Financial Services Group which temporarily stopped selling bonds by consumer loans in December. Source
Alibaba announced it was taking a 33 percent stake in their fintech affiliate Ant Financial; the agreement allows for Alibaba to pick of shares of Ant Financial and also ends the revenue share agreement they had in place; TechCrunch reports the deal was focused on “certain intellectual property rights owned by Alibaba exclusively related to Ant Financial.”; Alibaba saw their shares drop after the announcement and many think this is a prelude to Ant Financial’s IPO. Source.
AliPay launched a free service this week which allowed users to generate a profile based on their shopping history; users who signed up were automatically enrolled in their credit-scoring system called Sesame Credit unless they unchecked a box; this led to an outcry from users and a subsequent apology from the company; Bloomberg shares how this highlights a broader concern over transparency of user data in the country. Source
Standard Chartered and Ant Financial signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their fintech reach in the Belt and Road Initiative; as Banking Technology reports the details are not flushed out yet but they are looking to broaden access to financial services in countries where the Belt and Road Initiative reaches; the companies have already partnered on funding settlement, FX services and Alipay Wallet. Source.
This weeks WeiyangX Fintech Review on Crowdfund Insider covered the PBoC discussing key findings in their fintech sandbox program; Pinganfang.com found itself involved in a US crowdfunding fraud case; JD Finance and China UnionPay partnered on a blockchain based risk information sharing mechanism; Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma announced that Ant Financial will delay their IPO; Tencent reached an agreement with China CITIC Bank to cooperate on cloud services, a financial big data platform and security. Source.