Ant Group Founder Jack Ma to Cede Control
Chinese billionaire and Ant Group founder Jack Ma is handing over the key of the fintech giant due to a lengthy regulatory crackdown from Chinese authorities.
The company’s attempt to debut on the stock market with an IPO of $37bn, which would have been the world’s largest, was scrapped in November 2020, triggering a mammoth overhaul of Ant’s operations.
While relinquishing control could clear the way for the company to revive its IPO, the changes announced by the group are likely to result in a further delay due to listing regulations.
In giving up control of Ant, Ma’s voting rights will slide to 6.2% from 50%. In a statement released on Saturday, the company said it was restructuring so that, “no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group.”
Ma only owns a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, but has exercised control over the company through related entities, according to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with the exchanges in 2020.
Ma’s decision comes as Ant is nearing the completion of its two-year regulatory-driven restructuring, with Chinese authorities poised to impose a fine of more than $1bn on the firm, Reuters reported in November.
The expected penalty is part of Beijing’s sweeping and unprecedented crackdown on the country’s technology titans over the past two years that has sliced hundreds of billions of dollars off their values and shrunk revenues and profits.
Alibaba shares rose more than 4% on the news, while American depositary receipts of Alibaba were up around 5%.