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Ant
Financial sold stakes to external investors, including China
Development Bank Capital Co and a holding company affiliated
with David Yu, the co-founder of Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack
Ma's private equity firm Yunfeng Capital, the person said,
adding that they did not know how much was raised.
China's National Social Security Fund acquired about 5 percent,
the person said. On its official Weibo microblog, Ant Financial
confirmed the fund had invested, reflecting the faith in Ant
Financial's future growth and profit.
David Yu had previously bought shares in Ant Financial, but with
his holding firm's stake increase he and other external
investors now hold 12.4 percent of the company, according to the
person.
Part of the reason Ant Financial is so valuable is that it
operates Alipay, the crown jewel in Alibaba's e-commerce empire,
which allows shoppers and merchants to make online transactions
easily in China's otherwise unmodernized payment processing
environment.
Beijing has also given Ant Financial the green light to run an
internet bank and wealth management products, among other
things. The motive is to shake up China's stodgy and
conservative finance sector, where traditional state-owned banks
have underserved smaller business and individual borrowers.
State-run Shanghai Securities News had reported in February that
Ant Financial was seeking to raise up to $4 billion in private
placement of shares.
An Ant Financial spokeswoman was not immediately available for
comment by telephone.
China Development Bank could not immediately be reached for a
comment.
(Reporting by Paul Carsten and Ismail Shakil; Additional
reporting by Shu Zhang, editing by David Evans)
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