Billionaire Jack Ma plans to cede control of Chinese fintech Ant Group

The billionaire founder of AlibabaJack Ma, plans to give up control of Ant Group, the Chinese fintech company whose historic IPO was stopped in 2020 by the Beijing authorities and which is in the process of being restructured, as reported on Thursday The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The newspaper, citing anonymous sources, notes that Ma could lose control of the company by transferring some of his voting power to other executives of it, including CEO Eric Jing.

According to him WSJAnt has communicated to the regulators the plans of the billionaire businessman while is preparing to modify its business structure in a move that would have the approval of the authorities.

The billionaire businessman currently manages more than half of the shares of Ant Group through entities under its power, but has been considering stepping aside for years, as it did previously with Alibabawhere he stepped down as president in 2019 and retains less than 5% ownership.

Ant Groupwhich was created as a subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce giant, is the operator of Alipay, the main electronic payment platform in China.

Its expected $37 billion IPO in Hong Kong in 2020, It was going to be the largest operation of its kind in all of history. was cut short at the last minute by decision of the Chinese authorities, who decided to increase their regulatory scrutiny over the technology sector for alleged monopolistic practices and threats to national security.

China’s move came shortly after Ma publicly criticized the financial bureaucracy in the Asian giant and, since then, the billionaire has chosen to keep a low profile and generally avoid public appearances.

Under the pressure of the regulators, Ant Group is in the process of distancing itself from Alibaba and to reorganize as an investment company that controls a series of subsidiaries in charge of different parts of its business.

On the other hand, Alibaba plans to add a primary listing in Hong Kong to its presence in New Yorktargeting mainland Chinese investors and becoming the first major company to take advantage of a change in rules in the financial hub to attract Chinese high-tech companies.

The e-commerce giant’s move, announced Tuesday, comes at a time when both Washington and Beijing sharpen the scrutiny on the prices of Chinese companiesand after a devastating regulatory crackdown in China left Alibaba with a $2.8 billion fine.

It also occurs in the context of an audit dispute between China and the United States, which threatens to expel hundreds of Chinese companies listed in New York.

(With information from EFE and Reuters)

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