HONG KONG -- Ant Group's initial public offering drew a record 19.05 trillion yuan ($2.84 trillion) in bids from retail investors on the Shanghai side as mom-and-pop investors vied to grab a share of the world's largest IPO.
The mainland portion of the listing drew retail bids equal to 872.3 times the shares on offer. Retail subscriptions for the Hong Kong leg of the offering, which closes at noon Friday, already have notched bids of nearly 100 times the shares on offer as of Thursday afternoon, said a person familiar with the matter.