Jack Ma
Photographer: Marlene Awaad / Bloomberg
Photographer: Marlene Awaad / Bloomberg
Ant Group is exploring ways for founder Jack Ma to sell his stake and relinquish control of the Chinese financial technology company as a means to ease pressure from the country’s regulators. Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Officials from the People’s Bank of China and the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission of China held separate talks with Ma and Ant between January and March, where the possibility of Ma’s exit was discussed, Reuters reported.
The company expected Ma’s stake to be sold to Ant’s existing shareholders or its e-commerce partner Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., according to Reuters. Ant issued a statement to the news agency denying that the divestment of Ma’s stake was ever raised.
Read more: Jack Ma’s Double-Whammy marks the end of China Tech’s Golden Age
The Chinese government has been pressuring Ma’s Internet empire as part of an effort to indelibly imprint its authority on the country’s technology industry. In historic announcements this month, it imposed a record $ 2.8 billion fine on Alibaba for abusing its market dominance, and then ordered a review of Ant.
Ant will be effectively overseen more like a bank, a measure with far-reaching implications for its growth and its ability to move forward with an initial public offering that the government abruptly delayed late last year.
The review outlined by regulators and the company will see how Ant is transformed into a financial holding company, with the authorities in charge of the firm opening its payment application to competition, increasing oversight of how this business feeds it from fundamental consumer lending operations and increases data protection. . It will also have to reduce the outstanding value of its Yu’ebao monetary fund.
Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Francis Chan said in a report earlier this week that he expects Ant’s valuation to fall from 700 billion yuan ($ 107 billion) to 2.1 billion yuan in a previous attempt. of publication.
“The Ant Group’s prospects could decline further after China stops the improper link of Alipay payments with Ant’s other products,” he said. “New limits on Yu’ebao are also hurting its wealth business.”
The ant’s prospects diminish in Alipay’s decoupling of products: it reacts
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