While Jack Ma was trying to save his relationship with Beijing in early November, the besieged Chinese billionaire offered to hand over parts of his financial technology giant, Ant Group, to the Chinese government, according to people familiar with the matter.
“You can take any of the platforms that Ant has, as long as the country needs it,” Ma, China’s richest man, proposed in an unusual session with regulators, people said.
The offer, which was not reported earlier, appeared to be Ma’s fault when she came face to face with central bank officials and Chinese agencies overseeing securities, banking and insurance. The November 2 meeting took place a few days before Ant was supposed to make it public, in what would have been the largest initial public offering in the world.
Ma had angered Beijing by launching a speech in October on President Xi Jinping’s signature campaign to control financial risks, saying it stifled innovation. Now, regulators had convened the meeting to express their concerns about Ant’s business model.
Its olive branch supply at the meeting failed to save the IPO, and since then, Beijing has stepped up efforts to curb the giants of China’s big technologies.
People close to China’s financial regulators say there is currently no decision to welcome Ma into their offer. One plan being put forward is to subject Ant to stricter capital and leverage regulations, according to the people. In this scenario, state-owned banks or other types of state investors would buy from Ant to help cover any potential capital shortfall as a result of stricter rules.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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