Alibaba's Ant Financial To Conduct Second Funding Round

Alibaba's finance arm, Ant Financial, will be conducting a second funding round prior to its IPO launch this year.

Alibaba Group Holding’s finance arm which is more commonly known as Ant Financial is all set to launch its first initial public offering (IPO) in the foreseeable future. The financial wing is expected to conduct and finish a second round of funding before its reports its IPO. Ant Financial is hoping to raise at least $1.5 billion (10 billion Yuan) in a new funding round prior to its Initial Public Offering. As reported by Bloomberg, the finance arm is currently in talks with several financial institutions that would help it to raise the funds.

The finance wing’s spokesperson, Miranda Shek, has already confirmed about the second funding round to Bloomberg in an interview. Ant Financial previously completed a funding round back in June after which its value became $45 billion. In its first ever funding round, the financial firm sold its 12.4 percent of stakes to external investors which include China Development Bank Capital Co. and China’s national social security fund. The financial wing of Alibaba Group has solid plans to establish an IPO in this year. However it is still unclear whether Ant Financial would launch IPO after the second funding round or it will go for a third funding round as well.

Ant Financial has locked eyes on making its debut in the stock market but no exact time duration is given as to when it plans to launch IPO and make its way to the stock market listings. Several anonymous sources familiar to the matter have reported that the Jack Ma’s Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co. will soon issue shares to the current and prospective investors.

On the other hand, Ant Financial owns and operates the biggest and largest mobile payments service of China, Alipay. Apart from backing Alipay, it is also known for operating the China’s biggest money market fund called Yu’E Baothat. Yu’E Baothat is popular for managing its portfolio which is worth at a massive 600 billion Yuan.

According to a source it is believed that the finance arm of the firm will use these funds to raise a new round which will further help in acquiring new companies. This was also reported by Bloomberg. Ant Financial currently hold stakes in India's One97 Communications Lyd. and Postal Savings Bank of China.

Alibaba is quite active in the market these days. It will be exciting to see how the IPO of its finance wing goes by. BABA currently holds the record of posting a record breaking IPO of $25 billion.