Alibaba Snags Ant Stake in Possible Prelude to Public Offering

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba quarterly earnings, revenue up

Liza Lin

The Wall Street Journal

Biography Liza Lin
@liz_in_shanghai
liza.lin@wsj.com

Updated Feb. 1, 2018 12:06 p.m. ET

SHANGHAI—Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said it will acquire a 33% stake in its financial services affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, in a move that could signal that Ant is being readied for a public offering.

The Ant equity purchase was announced as Alibaba reported robust third-quarter earnings of 24.1 billion yuan ($3.82 billion), up from 17.9 billion yuan in the like quarter the previous year. That topped a forecast of 21.6 billion yuan by analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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