An Ant Group logo appears at the company’s headquarters, Alibaba’s subsidiary, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, on October 29, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters
GUANGZHOU, China – Ant Group will find a “liquidity solution” for employees to monetize shares after regulators withdraw their massive initial public offering (IPO), according to a top company executive.
Eric Jing, executive chairman of the Chinese financial technology company set up by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, also pledged to include the company.
An employee posted on Ant Group’s internal message board asking about the company’s future and how to retain talent. In response, Jing said the technology giant is studying a “short-term liquidity solution” for employees to take effect in April, without detailing what that might mean, a person who saw the note told CNBC .
Ant Group declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the content of the message.
Many employees of the Ant Group have shares in the company as a form of compensation. Typically, employees can collect or earn income from these shares if the company is acquired, made public, or if management decides to purchase shares.
Ant Group, owner of the popular Chinese mobile payments app Alipay, was planning a $ 34.5 billion IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong in November, which would have been the largest of all time. But regulators forced the company to stop trading two days before it started trading. Ant cited “major issues such as changes in the financial technology regulatory environment” for the cancellation.