Alibaba’s Ant Group, reportedly valued at $200 billion, plans dual IPO

Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, announced plans for its long-awaited dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong on Monday.   

The company is known for running Alipay, one of China’s most popular mobile payment systems. But Ant Group has been expanding its reach into everything from wealth management to micro-loans. And beyond that, it has been focusing on selling financial technology products to enterprise customers.

While Ant Group may not be that well known outside of China, its valuation could top that of some of Wall Street’s biggest banks, according to one analyst who spoke to CNBC on Tuesday. 

Alipay was launched in 2004. It’s a so-called Quick Response or QR code…