Ant Group IPO Online Roadshow Planning Focus: High Valuation? How To Keep Competitive?

"What time can ant forest harvest more energy?" "Can we have a lot of coral species in the future "Can the fertilizer produced by chickens be used in the ant forest?"

The IPO meeting held on October 27 was quite lively, which was not related to the group's IPO on October 27.

Ant group chairman Jing Xiandong "solemnly" to answer: "generally speaking, in the morning more. But there is no farming and no harvest. The key is to generate more energy, and the best way to generate energy is more low-carbon behavior. "

In addition, the 21st century economic reporter found that the sensitive issues related to the capital market, such as whether ant group's pricing is too high, the relationship with banks' competition and cooperation, and the impact of regulatory policies, have also become the focus of investors' attention.

Is the price high?

On the evening of October 26, ant group determined that the issue price of a shares was 68.8 yuan / share, and the issue price of Hong Kong shares was also announced on the same day, which was HK $80 / share, which was basically the same as that of a shares after excluding the influence of exchange rate.

Is 68.8 yuan / share expensive? From the perspective of P / E ratio, if earnings per share is calculated by dividing the net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non tradable assets in 2019 by the total share capital after issuance without considering the over allotment option, the corresponding P / E ratio of 68.8 yuan / share is 153.69 times. Compared with comparable listed companies, Alibaba's static P / E ratio is 39.24 times (after adjustment, the same below), and Tencent holdings is 49.09 times.

From the perspective of investors' questions, most still think that the valuation is on the high side.

Several investors put forward: "is the price of 68.8 yuan / share and the corresponding PE multiple too expensive?" "The initial pricing of ant group is not cheap. From the sponsor's point of view, is the initial pricing too high?" Can the company's current market value continue to grow

In this regard, the sponsor, ant group related responsible person said that the initial price is carefully determined after market-oriented inquiry.

"In the process of this issuance, the company has conducted full exchanges with domestic and foreign mainstream institutional investors. Investors generally recognize the company's sustainable growth prospects and long-term investment value, and believe that the current pricing level is reasonable. The company is confident to maintain good growth momentum in the future. " Ant group chief financial officer Han Xinyi said.

On the issue of valuation, many analysts believe that the valuation is slightly higher, but there is still room.

You Xi, the author of ant gold and a researcher at Beijing Institute of understanding, said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter, "I think it is a reasonable price in my expectation. Previously, the market value of investment banks was estimated to be 2.5-3 trillion. Now the market value of ants is 2.1 trillion, which has exceeded Maotai (2.05 trillion). Generally speaking, it is a relatively fair value After the stock price promotion, there is a certain space. "

A well-known investment bank personage also told reporters earlier, "the valuation is slightly higher, but it is not too unreasonable. Considering that digital finance begins to turn to digital life and then to Digital China, there is still room for imagination."

According to Xi, the controversy about ant valuation before listing is due to certain relationship with information asymmetry. There are two ways of thinking, one is based on the analysis of static financial statements of securities analysts, from the past to see the future. The other is to see whether it has the ability of trend innovation in the future and whether the company's founders still have "momentum" to lead the company forward in today's financial Internet era. It believes that ants still have the value of stable and continuous rise.

On the impact of listing on the capital market, Hu Xiaoming, CEO of ant group, said in a question raised by 21st century economic report reporter who asked as an investor, "as a leading technology company in the world, the listing of ant group will bring more vigor, fresh blood and new investment opportunities to the capital market. An active capital market will promote healthy economic development. "

Competition and cooperation with banks

In addition to pricing, another type of key issues that investors focus on are related to corporate business: the competitive relationship with banks, the competition with wechat payment, the potential impact of regulatory policies Ant group has also responded to the above problems.

Throughout the growing process of ants, it started with payment. From the initial payment business to the birth of digital technology platform, ant group has established a complex competition and cooperation relationship with banks. Previously, ant sold ant strategic placement fund exclusively through Alipay, which was considered to have touched the interests of bank channels to some extent.

"We have a win-win cooperation with financial institutions rather than a competitive relationship," said Jing. Ant group is committed to promoting inclusive development, serving 80% of the groups that have not been served or well served before - ordinary consumers and small and micro enterprises. This is an incremental market, not a game of stock. It's not a zero sum game, it's about making a big cake and sharing it. Our cooperation with financial institutions is not only the cooperation of sales channels, but also the provision of data insight, intelligent risk control and technical services, as well as product innovation based on customer insight. Highly complementary capabilities of both sides. "

The relationship between wechat and ant group is also worth pondering. Previously, ant avoided the comparison with wechat payment for many times in its reply, saying that although wechat payment also provides similar digital payment services, it has certain differences with ant's digital payment and business service business, so it is not comparable.

Asked again about the competitive relationship with wechat payment, Hu Xiaoming stressed that although there are many imitators and followers in the industry, ant group still maintains its leading edge.

Regarding the potential risks brought about by regulatory policies, ant group did not reply to this question raised by reporters in this roadshow.

Some investors are also concerned about similar problems and put forward that "at present, the company's loan service fee income accounts for a relatively high proportion. If the supervision is strengthened, it will have a relatively large adverse impact on the company's income. Does the company have a plan to reduce the proportion of loan service fee income in the total revenue?"

In response, Han Xinyi said that he believed that China's consumer credit and small and micro enterprise credit market still has broad growth space. Ant will work with cooperative financial institutions to manage credit risk, provide consumers and small and micro enterprises with continuous high-quality and convenient credit services, and believe that the micro credit technology platform business of Ma'an will also maintain a sustained and rapid growth.

Ant group has previously told reporters, "changes in relevant regulatory systems, laws, regulations and policies may increase the difficulty and cost of compliance of the company, but it will not have a significant adverse impact on the company's ability to continue as a going concern."

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