The record for the biggest IPO ever currently belongs to the Saudi state owned oil giant Saudi Aramco. It’s IPO in December 2019 was the biggest IPO till date. The Saudi company raised over $29.4 billion in the IPO. The company was valued at $1.7 trillion then. Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is all set to break the record as it plans to raise over $30 billion from its IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange & Hong Kong stock exchange.
The Saudi company listed less than 2 percent shares for public offering, while Ant Group is expected to list around 15 percent of its shares. Jack Ma’s Ant Group is targeting a valuation of $225 billion for its IPO. Ali Baba has a controlling stake of 33% in Ant Group. The Ant Group operates Alipay, which is the world’s largest mobile and online payment platform now.
The Ant Group is set to eclipse Saudi Aramco’s IPO in Riyadh stock exchange. The listing is expected around September 2020. The Chinese payment app company will be among the biggest IPOs ever. Ant Group last raised major funding in 2018, back then it was valued at $150 billion. Ant Financial is the most valuable start-up company in the world and the highest valued FinTech company too.
With Ant Financial & Saudi Aramco occupying the first two spots, the third spot on the list goes to another Chinese company. It is Ali Baba. The Chinese ecommerce company raised $25 billion in its IPO in the US. Ali Baba’s IPO was the biggest in US history and bigger than FaceBook, Google, & Twitter combined.
Japan’s SoftBank is next on the list as it raised $23.5 billion in its IPO. SoftBank holds stakes in many technology, financial and energy companies around the world. SoftBank also runs the world’s largest venture fund known as the Vision Fund to back technology companies. The Vision fund has over $100 billion in capital. The company is headed by Masayoshi Son.
Agricultural Bank of China and ICBC are fifth and sixth in terms of the funds raised at the IPO. Both these companies are from China. Out of the top 6 biggest IPOs ever, 4 of them belong to Chinese companies. Agricultural Bank of China raised $22.1 billion in its IPO in 2010. At the time, it was the biggest ever IPO. The IPO was held in Shanghai. The Industrial and Commerce Bank of China known as ICBC raised $21.9 billion in its IPO listing in 2006. ICBC was the biggest IPO until it was overtaken by Agricultural Bank of China.
The HongKong based AIA, the Asian life insurance arm of AIG raised $20.5 billion in 2010. The next on the list is General Motors, which raised $20.1 billion in the US Stock exchange. This at the time was the biggest IPO in the US market.
NTT Docomo is a subsidiary of the Japanese telecom operator, NTT, it raised $18.4 billion in its IPO in 1998. Visa Inc, the financial services company headquartered in Foster City, California, US, is tenth on the list as it raised $17.8 billion in 2008. Visa facilitates the electronic transfer of payments with credit, debit & prepaid cards around the world.
ENEL is Italy’s and the only European company to make it to this list. ENEL was formerly a state owned company later privatised. Enel is a leading energy provider, which listed over 31.7 percent of its shares and raised $16.5 billion in its IPO in 2010. The IPO was done at Milan and remains the biggest IPO in Europe till date.
Last on the list is Facebook. The quintessential social media platform that has got more users than most continents. Facebook reports to have over 2.7 billion active monthly users on its platform as of June, 2020. Facebook held its IPO in 2012 and raised a whopping $16 billion at the time. It was the largest technology IPO for a US company back then.
Technology companies are dominating the largest IPOs. The next few years may see some new entries to this list. The Chinese companies are ever increasing their footprints around the world, the US already has some of the largest companies in terms of their market capitalisation.
