Ant Financial’s Mysterious Valuation Inflation

Alibaba affiliate apparently worth $150 billion, even as shadows spread over its growth and profitability

China’s Ant Financial is looking ever more like an elephant, but investors should be wary of getting squashed.

The financial affiliate of e-commerce behemoth Alibaba is raising $9 billion this week from a range of international investors, valuing it at a whopping $150 billion. On paper, Ant will be larger than banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and will be China’s sixth-largest financial firm, just below the state-owned Bank of China.

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