Latest news with #AntGroup
Independent Singapore
2 days ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
Singapore-headquartered Tiger Brokers to double Hong Kong staff as it targets offshore China wealth
Photo: Depositphotos/leungchopan HONG KONG: Singapore-headquartered firm Tiger Brokers plans to double its Hong Kong office's headcount over the next two to three years, as it aims to tap into the growing offshore Chinese wealth in the city, Reuters reported, citing the company's founder and CEO Tianhua Wu as saying on Monday. Founded in Beijing in 2014, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-licensed broker currently employs 60 people in Hong Kong. Tiger Brokers' parent firm, UP Fintech Holding, was listed in the United States in 2019. Mr Wu, a former tech veteran, said Hong Kong is a 'very important global financial centre', not just because of its several million local residents but because it is backed by China, noting that the growing offshore Chinese wealth will need investment services. He said securities trading activities in the offshore Chinese market have gone up since Beijing started rolling out stimulus measures last September. This trend continued despite ongoing global trade tensions. This year, mainland investors have put HK$651 billion (S$107 billion) into Hong Kong-listed shares through the Southbound Stock Connect, more than double the HK$283 billion bought in the same period last year, according to CICC analysts on Tuesday. Reuters reported that the capital inflows have been a boost for Hong Kong brokers that serve mainland clients, amid trade tensions due to US tariffs. One of the companies that was drawn to the Hong Kong market was China's Ant Group, which bought a 50.55% stake in local broker Bright Smart in April. Mr Wu said Tiger Brokers expects demand to grow from both wealthy individuals and corporate clients as more high-net-worth (HNW) Chinese set up family offices in Hong Kong, and local businesses want to expand overseas. He also noted that 'star' Chinese firms coming to Hong Kong have increased interest in buying and trading new shares. /TISG Read also: Hong Kong pulls ahead of Singapore in family office race, for now, as both cities face economic hurdles
Business Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
OCBC partners Ant International to offer embedded finance to Indonesia SMEs
[SINGAPORE] OCBC has partnered digital payment, digitisation and financial technology provider Ant International to provide embedded financial services to small and medium-sized (SMEs) enterprises in Indonesia. The collaboration is set to benefit thousands of SMEs in Indonesia over the next few years, said OCBC and the Jack Ma-backed Ant Group spin-off in a statement on Wednesday (Jun 4). 'This is part of a joint effort to boost financial inclusion for businesses operating in one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing digital economies in South-east Asia,' said OCBC. The partnership taps the bank's long-standing presence and deep knowledge of SMEs and customer franchise in Indonesia, as well as Ant International's capabilities in alternative data modelling, dynamic credit strategy and automated credit decision. Said Linus Goh, OCBC head of global commercial banking: 'We believe this collaboration will help us to shape the future landscape of financial services in an increasingly digital marketplace in Indonesia, and importantly, to help us enable the aspirations and growth of our SME customers.' Ant International general manager of credit services Quan Tu said the partnership with OCBC 'highlights our shared commitment to deliver tech-infused innovation that empowers business growth and support Indonesia's sustainable future'.
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Ant International rolls out agentic AI platform in pursuit of ‘holy grail' for fintech
Ant International, a spin-off from Ant Group, has launched an agentic artificial intelligence (AI) tool called the Alipay+ GenAI Cockpit, to deliver more efficient payments and compliance capabilities in the financial services industry. The Singapore-based company said the tool, described as an AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) platform, enables fintech companies to build agentic AI systems as well as 'AI-native financial services' for facilitating payments and compliance checks. Ant Group is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post. AI agents are programs that are capable of autonomously performing tasks on behalf of a user or another system. Essentially, these agents create a plan of specific tasks and subtasks to complete a goal using its available resources. 'The FinAI sector is at its big-bang moment,' Jiangming Yang, chief innovation officer of Ant International, said in a statement. 'We are eager to work with the industry to evolve and expand the toolbox as well as this ecosystem to help financial businesses scale their growth faster and better.' Applying AI to the finance world is the 'holy grail of the current AI revolution,' according to Ant. A banner for Alipay+ is seen at the UEFA Euro 2024 Group D match between Austria and France in Dusseldorf, Germany, on June 17, 2024. Photo: Xinhua The latest initiative of Ant International reflects efforts of Big Tech firms to leverage their AI expertise to provide tools that will keep value chain partners in their ecosystems.
South China Morning Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Ant International: numerical AI model is the GPT of financial services
Ant International predicts that its artificial intelligence (AI) model for foreign exchange (FX) could have as large an impact on financial services as OpenAI's large language model (LLM) GPT has had in the broader business world. Advertisement The Time-Series Transformer (TST) AI FX Model developed by the Singapore-based fintech company focuses on numerical data prediction rather than content generation. Kelvin Li, general manager of the company's platform tech business unit, called it 'another track to AI', alongside LLMs – the technology underpinning generative AI applications like ChatGPT. In financial services, most companies are adopting LLMs to help minimise risk, 'but these models have not gone to the core of financial service, for example, trading, pricing and transaction processing', Li said in an interview. 'We believe the TST AI FX Model could be the foundational model for financial services, digital payments and even general economic activities.' Ant International is a unit of Hangzhou-based Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding. Alibaba owns the Post. Advertisement The TST AI FX model currently forecasts Ant International's cash flow and FX exposure on an hourly, daily and weekly basis, with more than 90 per cent accuracy, according to the company. This enables more accurate predictions of trading volumes and reduces hedging and risk-premium costs from banks. The model serves customers including banks, airlines, online travel agents and e-commerce platforms. Ant International said it would soon announce a partnership with a low-cost airline in the region.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ant Group Global Unit Brings in $3 Billion Ahead of Spinoff
(Bloomberg) -- Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co.'s international division generated nearly $3 billion in revenue for 2024, according to people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for a spinoff after the unit set up its own board last year. America, 'Nation of Porches' Maryland's Credit Rating Gets Downgraded as Governor Blames Trump NJ Transit Train Engineers Strike, Disrupting Travel to NYC NYC Commuters Brace for Chaos as NJ Transit Strike Looms Illinois Cuts Revenue Outlook on Economic, Federal-Funding Woes Ant International, which is headquartered in Singapore, has also produced two consecutive years of adjusted profit, the people said, requesting not to be named because the information isn't public. It isn't clear how the company calculates its adjusted Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, but the metric typically strips out non-recurring costs, restructuring charges and other items. The group as a whole grew profits by 61% in 2024 to 38.3 billion yuan ($5.3 billion), according to Bloomberg calculations based on filings from its affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Its latest revenue was not disclosed. Hangzhou-based Ant owns Alipay, a widely used digital payments app and financial services provider in China. Ant Group didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Ant International has been making inroads into Southeast Asia and expanding its business scope. It's been a key unit for Ant Group, which has been trying to bolster revenue growth by investing heavily into artificial intelligence and overseas. Ant International's IPO Valuation May Be $8-$24 Billion: React The global unit could fetch an initial public offering valuation of anywhere between $8 billion to $24 billion if it were to list in Hong Kong, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Francis Chan and Sharnie Wong said in a note earlier this month. They based that on the assumption that Ant International's profit share is 20% of the entire group, which is estimated to be worth $40 billion to $119 billion. The international arm initially catered to Chinese tourists traveling outside the country by enabling them to use Alipay to make payments abroad. That service has since expanded into a backbone for cross-border payments known as Alipay+ that can be used by other digital wallets. For example, when customers of GCash from the Philippines travel to South Korea, they can make payments with their regular app when they see the Alipay+ logo displayed at merchants. Alipay+ currently connects 1.7 billion user accounts across 36 digital wallets. Ant International has three other core businesses: Antom offers payment solutions for merchants, WorldFirst enables cross-border trade payment, and Embedded Finance has an AI-powered digital lending service and helps clients with treasury and foreign exchange management. The unit is overseen by Chairman Eric Jing, who is also chairman of Ant Group. Yang Peng is the CEO of Ant International. Ant Group has made changes to its overall business strategy since Chinese regulators forced it to scrap its blockbuster initial public offering in 2020. In 2023, the company proposed buying back as much as 7.6% of its shares under a repurchase plan that took Ant's valuation down to about $79 billion at the time — well off its peak of $280 billion prior to its aborted listing. Ant overhauled its structure last year and set up independent boards for three of its units including the international division, OceanBase, and Ant Digital Technologies. The overall group would explore going public in Hong Kong first instead of a dual Shanghai-Hong Kong listing like what it tried earlier, people familiar said in 2023. (Updates with analyst estimate on Ant's valuation. An earlier version corrected Eric Jing's title in the 10th paragraph.) Why Apple Still Hasn't Cracked AI Microsoft's CEO on How AI Will Remake Every Company, Including His Cartoon Network's Last Gasp DeepSeek's 'Tech Madman' Founder Is Threatening US Dominance in AI Race As Nuclear Power Makes a Comeback, South Korea Emerges a Winner ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
