GUANGZHOU, China — Ant Group has received approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange for its highly-anticipated initial public offering (IPO), clearing the last major regulatory hurdle before its listing, CNBC has confirmed.
The Chinese technology giant passed a hearing with the exchange on Monday, a person familiar with the matter said. Reuters first reported the news.
Now Ant Group needs to file a registration with the Chinese regulators before proceeding with a roadshow and the eventual pricing of the IPO, the person, who preferred to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to speak publicly, added.
Ant Group declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. The Hong Kong stock exchange was not immediately available for comment.
The financial technology giant, which is 33% owned by Alibaba and controlled by founder Jack Ma, is seeking a concurrent listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) gave the green light for the Hong Kong portion of the IPO, earlier this week.
Ant Group's listing could be one of the biggest of all time. Reuters has previously reported the listing could raise up to $35 billion. One analyst previously told CNBC that Ant's valuation could exceed $200 billion.
The Chinese firm is known for running the massively popular Alipay mobile payments app which has over 700 million monthly active users. But it also sells technology products to financial services companies like banks and generates technology service fees from that.
Ant Group's IPO process has been pushing ahead despite a report that the U.S. is trying to get the company put on a trade blacklist called the Entity List, a move experts said would be "largely symbolic."