A blockbuster listing of Ant Financial, the fast-growing electronic payment affiliate of China’s leading tech group Alibaba, has again been delayed as it continues to burn cash and faces a crackdown on non-traditional financial institutions.
Ant was valued at $150bn in its last private fundraising in June, a round that bankers said paved the way for an initial public offering as early as this year.
But since then the battle for Chinese market share with the payments arm of rival Tencent has erased profitability and yet again bumped IPO plans further into the future. Two people familiar with the process said a listing was unlikely before the end of 2019, with one saying it was “years” away.