Bright Smart Securities rises to record after being acquired by Ant Group

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Shares of Bright Smart Securities & Commodities Group jumped as much as 60.7% to a record upon resumption of trading on Monday after Ant Group agreed to buy a 50.55% stake in the Hong Kong-based brokerage for HK$2.81 billion ($362.26 million).

The stock, whose trading was halted on April 23, touched HK$4.90, the highest since its debut in August 2010. It last traded up 33.4%. That compared to a 0.5% fall in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Bright Smart chairman Yip Mow Lum has agreed to sell 857.98 million shares at HK$3.28 per share to Ant Group’s Wealthiness and Prosperity Holding, which will be required to make an unconditional mandatory cash offer for all the issued shares, the firms said in a joint statement.

Ant Group, which is backed by China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group’s founder Jack Ma, intends to maintain Bright Smart’s listing on the Stock Exchange and has no plan to make any major changes to the business operations of the brokerage firm, which has a current market capitalisation of $903.61 million.

($1 = 7.7578 Hong Kong dollars)

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