KUALA LUMPUR: XOX Bhd has formed a strategic collaboration with Alipay Labs (Singapore) Pte Ltd, an affiliate company of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's Ant Group Co Ltd, to offer blockchain-based solutions in the Asia Pacific region including Malaysia.
Alipay is the largest player in China's 430 trillion yuan third-party mobile payments market, according to the market research firm Qianzhan.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, XOX said its wholly-owned XOX Wallet Sdn Bhd had on August 24, entered into an agreement with Alipay Labs for the blockchain solutions.
XOX, a mobile network service provider, said the agreement with Alipay Labs was effective from August 24 this year for three years.
The signing of the agreement with Alipay Labs seems timely given that Ant Group will launch an initial public offering (IPO) this year.
Ant Group, the payment- and finance-focused sister company of the Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba founded by Ma, recently announced plans to float on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges in a move that could value the company at US$225 billion.
It was reported that Ant Group could raise up to US$30 billion in the flotation, making it the world's largest IPO, overtaking the US$25.6 billion raised in the Saudi Aramco IPO in December 2019.
Shares of XOX attracted heavy interest today.
It rose 4.5 sen or 18 per cent to reach a four-year high of 30 sen in afternoon trade.
The stock closed 29.5 sen.
It was also the most active stock on Bursa Malaysia with around 563.1 million shares traded.
XOX said the agreement with Alipay Labs would not have any effects on the share capital and shareholding structure of the company.
It is also not expected to have any immediate material effect on the earnings per share, net assets per share and gearing of XOX for the financial year ending September 30, 2020.
XOX said the agreement, being incurred in the ordinary course of business, was also not subject to the approval of the shareholders.