Mubasher: Ant Group, an affiliate company of China's Alibaba Group, has obtained the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) for listing on the Hong Kong bourse, Reuters reported.

Ant Group seeks to simultaneously list in Hong Kong and on Shanghai's STAR Market to raise about $35 billion in what described as the world's largest initial public offering (IPO).

This IPO will exceed Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion record set in December, sources told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Refinitiv publication IFR reported that the CSRC is scheduled to approve the Chinese financial technology company's Star Market IPO this week.

The IFR added that Ant plans for a brief pre-marketing period this week before opening order books next week, as its shares are likely to start trading a few days following the US presidential election set on 3 November.

Previously, sources told Reuters that the financial technology company sought to launch the IPO in Hong Kong’s bourse after the week-long Chinese National Day holiday that ended on 8 October.

However, the CSRC delayed its approval to probe a possible conflict of interest in Ant’s listing by studying the role of Ant’s payment platform Alipay as the only third-party channel through which retail investors could buy five Chinese mutual funds investing in the IPO.