(Bloomberg) -- Days after China snuffed out the biggest initial public offering in history, Ant Group Co. gathered its investment bankers at a Hong Kong convention center overlooking Victoria Harbour. Even though staffers from Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley had just watched the deal of a lifetime vaporize -- along with $400 million in fees -- Ant’s team had a hopeful message: Don’t lose faith. Emblazoned on a big screen were the words: “Start from the Heart.” A year later, with the registration for Ant’s $35 billion IPO set to officially expire Wednesday, the optimism from...