Ant Group, the fintech arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, said it has started the process of a dual listing in Hong Kong and on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market, kicking off one of the world’s most hotly anticipated IPOs.

Ant is the world’s most valuable tech “unicorn” — a start-up valued at over $1 billion. It would become the first company to list both in Hong Kong and on the Star Market and its IPO should boost the status of both Hong Kong and Shanghai as capital market centres.

The company, China’s dominant mobile payments company, did not disclose the size, timetable or other details of the offering in its statement on Monday.

It was earlier reported that Ant was planning a Hong Kong float as soon as this year, targeting a valuation of more than $200 billion. It was valued at about $150 billion in its last funding round in 2018.

Ant was spun off from Alibaba in 2011. It offers loans, payments, insurance and asset management services via mobile apps.