Ant Group Buys Land in Shanghai, Eyes Restart of IPO

Alibaba‘s financial services arm $Ant Group Co., Ltd. (688688.SH)$ , have won the rights to a plot of land called “Fuyou” in Shanghai. Analysts have suggested that the move may indicate Alibaba is accelerating its split with Ant Group, so as to promote the latter’s restart of an IPO bid.

Alibaba and Ant Group have been rooted in Hangzhou, Zhejing Province for a long time. Shanghai hosts certain decentralized businesses of Alibaba, such as the headquarters of Hema Fresh and Alibaba‘s Shanghai R&D Center. In October 2020 and August 2021, Ant Group spent more than 4 billion yuan ($570.6 million) to win the rights to two plots of land in Hangzhou, with an area of over 800,000 square meters. At that time, the firm announced that it would establish global headquarters, but almost two years have passed and no new developments have been announced.

In November 2020, Ant Group’s listing – potentially the world’s largest IPO, worth about $34.4 billion – was abruptly suspended. At that time, the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced that the actual controller, chairman and general manager of the company were jointly interviewed by government departments, and the company also reported major issues such as changes in the financial technology regulatory environment. These events may have caused Ant Group to fall short of requirements for an IPO or information disclosure, so the stock exchange decided to suspend its listing.