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Alibaba Group Holding Limited, China's largest e-commerce firm, launched a new subsidy group on Oct. 16, Thursday, to manage its financial services bodies and venture further into the profitable financial market.
The new affiliate named Ant Financial Services Group will focus on small businesses and individual customers, which Alibaba expects to target following its IPO expansion in New York on Sept. 19.
The said IPO earned over $20 billion, making it the most lucrative stock market launch in the U.S.
According to Mayun, a board chairman at Alibaba, the IPO turnout indicates investors' growing confidence in China's economy.
"We should be grateful to our times, to the internet, to China and to SMEs," Mayun said.
Ant Financial Services Group will handle six financial services bodies owned by Alibaba.
Alipay, a third-party payment processor like PayPal, operates now under Ant, as well as its mobile application Alipay Wallet. Alipay processes over 80 million transactions each day, with 45 million done through its mobile application.
Also to be transferred under Ant management are Yu'e Bao, a financial market fund; Zhaocaibao, a third-party financial services provider; Ant Micro, a loan provider; and MYBank, a private bank.
Although Alibaba's financial firms will be under Alipay, Alibaba still owns 40 percent of the shares of Ant. More will be put under Alibaba's name in the near future.
According to reports, Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder, has no plans of acquiring shares of Ant that will surpass the 7.65 percent he has of Alibaba.
Ant is looking to attract more investors by offering 27 percent of its shares for ownership.
