Honestly, the more I read about Ant, I'm really surprised that they were ever allowed to get this close to an IPO.
A better question is why would they need an IPO to raise money? They dont need it.
I think the ANT ipo is an insurance policy by ANT, to prevent the government flip
the switch to full electronic RMB or ban all other electronic payments other than DCEP once DCEP is fully rolled out. The Alipay business alone makes trillions of yuans in processing fees. By making ANT public, the government will have a hard time killing the golden goose. And as expected, wordwide funds pouring into the IPO, which will further makes it harder for the goverment to control it.
The Alipay and wechat pay have just become too big, and both the authorities and the players know this cannot be compounded forever. Something needs to be done to control these behemoths.