Knight Investment Limited – Alibaba – Ant Financial Increases Exposure in Japan

HONG KONG - Oct. 7, 2018 - PRLog -- The program also involves partnering with banks operating in Japan. Yahoo Japan was set up as a joint venture between Altaba and SoftBank. In July, Altaba entered into a deal to sell some of its Yahoo Japan shares to SoftBank. Altaba owns ~15% of Alibaba.

Taking Alipay to international markets seems necessary since Ant Financial's competition has intensified in China, its home market. Ant lost Walmart's business earlier this year when the American retailer dropped Alipay in favor of Tencent's WeChat Pay in its stores in the western region of China.

Diversifying the business
Ant Financial is also using its recently acquired wealth to accelerate the diversification of its business beyond payments. It recently launched a new unit focused primarily on providing technological solutions that financial institutions can leverage to operate more efficiently and increase customer satisfaction.

Alibaba, which takes a cut of Ant's profits, posted a net profit of $1.3 billion in its fiscal 2019 first quarter, which ended in June.

Ant Financials pending IPO will be one of the largest and most sought after Chinese listings for 2018/2019.

To find out more information on Ant Financial and their IPO, contact us today at info@knight-investment.com or visit our website www.knight-investment.com to find out more about their services and products available.