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You may not have heard of the financial technology giant Ant Group, but I’m sure you’re familiar with the name Jack Ma.

The co-founder and former executive chairman of the Alibaba Group threw one hell of a retirement party last year, but he’s still busy behind the scenes with some rather big business.

Ant Group, an affiliate company of the Alibaba Group, is poised to raise about $34,5 billion in the world’s largest share offering (initial public offering, or IPO), which will break Saudi Aramco’s previous record of $29,4 billion.

The IPO will take place in two markets – Hong Kong and Shanghai – bypassing US stock exchanges altogether.

Some background on the group via the Washington Post:

As the financial arm of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, Ant Group provides an array of payment and financial services to more than 700 million monthly users. The company processes trillions of dollars every year and facilitates loans to consumers and small businesses that may not qualify for funds from China’s largest banks…

Image: REUTERS/Aly Song

In the 12 months ended in June, the company said it processed $17 trillion in digital payments in mainland China, taking in $18 billion in revenue and profits of $2.7 billion.

With numbers like that, it’s no surprise that the fintech giant will have a market value of around $315 billion.

For some context regarding that figure, here’s TechCentral:

At about $315-billion, Ant is worth more than the GDPs of Egypt, Chile or Finland. For corporate comparisons, it’s bigger than JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank. Ant is larger than payment rival PayPal Holdings, media giant Walt Disney and dwarfs Bank of America. It’s three times bigger than tech giant IBM and four times larger than Goldman Sachs Group.

Put quite simply, Alipay and WeChat Pay have helped make Chinese society virtually cashless, and hugely reduced the amount of time each in-person transaction takes.

Rather than people fumbling in their pockets for cash, the person behind the counter will scan a customer’s QR code (located on their smartphone), with the money automatically deducted from their Alipay or WeChat Pay digital wallets.

A second Washington Post article spoke with Shaun Rein, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai:

“Think of Alipay as Visa, MasterCard, Citibank, Fidelity… all rolled up into one,” said Rein…

“On the Alipay platform, you pay for things, you buy insurance, you buy wealth management. Your whole life revolves around Alipay.”

“Ant Group is so valuable because Alipay is used on a day to day basis by a billion people on all of their purchases,” said Rein. “The scale of fintech in China dwarfs the regular financial transaction potential in the United States.”

I’m not sure I want my whole life revolving around a single platform, but it sure is good for business.

If your valuation is set to be more than the GDP of Finland, you must be doing something right.

Read the rest of the Washington Post’s report here.

[sources:washpost&techcentral&washpost]