(Yicai Global) Oct. 28 -- Ant Group, the world’s highest-valued fintech company, shared the updates on its highly-anticipated IPOs, competition and what investors are concerned about in a three-hour-long question and answer session with the public yesterday.

On the IPO

Investors generally believe the pricing of shares in the firm’s upcoming initial public offering are reasonable, said Chief Financial Officer Han Xinyi. The company is confident about its growth prospects and the long-term investment value for investors.

On competition

While there are other online payment tools such as WeChat Pay, Ant has never been afraid of competition, said Simon Hu, the firm’s chief executive officer. The Hangzhou-based company has built up win-win relationships with financial institutions and companies that rely on Alipay and its ecosystem and the firm runs in synergy with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, to which it is affiliated.

On interest rates

Most of the loans offered on Ant’s platforms, including its consumer loan service Jie Bei and its virtual credit-card-like payment product Huabei, have an annual percentage rate of under 14.6 percent, said Huang Hao, president of Ant’s digital finance business group. The law states that private lending must not be at rates more than four times the loan prime rate, which is set by the central bank. Yet 98 percent of the loans facilitated by Ant are from banks and other financial institutions and are not a form of private lending.

On insurance

Ant became China’s biggest online insurance platform in June through its partnerships with about 90 insurers, Huang said. In the 12 months ended June 30, Ant had facilitated CNY51.8 billion (USD7.7 billion) in insurance premiums, 9 percent of which were supplied by Taiwan’s Cathay Insurance.

On conventional banks

Ant provides its financial services to hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of millions of micro and small enterprises. It offers higher efficiency and lower costs by building on its technological advantages and the banks’ financial advantages. It has deep win-win partnerships with conventional banks in terms of payment, credit loans, wealth management and deposits.

Editor: Kim Taylor