April 2025
Article
4 minutes
Top 10 Private Companies Progress Report: Ant International
Claire Shaw – Portfolio Director
Ant Group is a Chinese financial technology which is typically affiliated with the establishment of Alipay via the Alibaba Group. Ant International is the global arm and subsidiary of Ant Group, headquartered in Singapore. It focuses on international markets, providing cross-border payment solutions and financial technology services.
Following a restructuring process, Ant International now has four main business pillars: Alipay+, a cross-border mobile payment platform connecting merchants and consumers globally through e-wallets and QR codes; Antom, which helps global merchants to engage digitally with consumers in Asia and beyond; WorldFirst, a one-stop digital payment and financial services platform for global businesses; and Embedded Finance, leverages cutting-edge AI and blockchain technologies in areas such as FX, treasury management and lending.
Key Facts
Operational Highlights
- In November 2024, the company disclosed that Alipay+ has 1.6 billion user accounts, collaborates with 35 leading mobile payment partners and connects over 90 million merchants in 66 markets across the globe.
- The company has ambitious international expansion plans and has stated: “Europe is a high focus right now because we’ve spent a good portion of the last several years in Asia”. This is evident through the Ant International brands being official partners of the Euro 2024 Football Championships in Germany.
- Total payment volume (TPV) of Antom’s direct acquiring services nearly doubled between January and November 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
- In 2024, five years after its acquisition, WorldFirst achieved an annual TPV of $100bn, four times that of 2020.
Financial Highlights
- 2024 was a “transformative year” for Ant International according to CEO Peng Yang, following a series of organisational and strategic upgrades. The company reported “robust growth during 2024 among all its four pillar businesses” according to several media outlets.
- In March 2025, President of Ant International, Douglas Feagin was quoted as saying they will IPO “when the time is right” but right now he is focused on having a solid financial picture by increasing the number of customers and partners and by driving transactions.
EV: Equity Values: the value of a company available to its shareholders. Shown throughout as at 31 December 2024. Logos courtesy of relevant companies. US Dollar.
Risk Factors
Unlisted investments such as private companies, in which the Trust has a significant investment, can increase risk. These assets may be more difficult to sell, so changes in their prices may be greater.
The trust invests in overseas securities. Changes in the rates of exchange may also cause the value of your investment (and any income it may pay) to go down or up.
The Trust invests in emerging markets, which includes China, where difficulties with market volatility, political and economic instability including the risk of market shutdown, trading, liquidity, settlement, corporate governance, regulation, legislation and taxation could arise, resulting in a negative impact on the value of your investment.
About the author - Claire Shaw
Portfolio Director
Claire Shaw is a portfolio director and plays a prominent role in servicing Scottish Mortgage’s UK shareholder base. Before joining in 2019, she spent over a decade as a fund manager with a focus on managing European equity portfolios for a global client base. With a background in analysing companies and communicating investment ideas, Claire is also responsible for creating engaging content that makes the Scottish Mortgage portfolio accessible to all its shareholders. Beyond that, she works closely with the managers, meeting with portfolio companies and conducting in-depth portfolio discussions with shareholders.
Important information
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