Post-Covid Cold War World Will Be Tough for Ant
Jack Ma’s fintech giant faces pandemic and geopolitical hurdles to its overseas expansion.
The road out of China may be arduous.
Photographer: Shiho Fukada/BloombergEnsconced in a lucrative niche at home, Jack Ma’s Ant Group nevertheless has to look outward. And expanding overseas has never looked so difficult for China’s biggest payments app, even with the war chest from what may be a world-record initial public offering.
Ant will have no problems raising the $30 billion it’s seeking in this mega-IPO. Few investors will pass up the chance to buy into the owner of Alipay, a super-app that offers access to everything from insurance and funds to loans and even groceries. For U.S. institutions, the lure of the world’s most valuable unicorn is likely to overshadow the threat of further action against Chinese companies by President Donald Trump, who has already issued executive orders targeting Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat, Alipay’s biggest domestic rival.