Ant Group founder, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who is also the founder and longtime head of Alibaba Group, will relinquish control of the Chinese fintech giant, according to Reuters. The move is intended to draw a line under the regulatory crackdown that began shortly after Ant’s IPO failed two years ago. This led to a forced restructuring of the fintech company and speculation that Ma would have to give up control. However, while some analysts said this could pave the way for the company to resume its IPO, the changes are likely to lead to a further delay due to listing rules. In China’s A-share market, companies must wait three years after a change of control to go public. On Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like STAR market, the wait is two years, and one year in Hong Kong.
Ant Group is behind Chinese mobile payment system Alipay, which has more than a billion users. Its planned 2020 IPO was expected to be the world’s largest at $35 billion and failed at the last minute due to regulatory issues.
Ma owns only a 10 percent stake in Ant, a subsidiary of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, but has exercised control over the company through affiliates. With Chinese regulators frowning on monopolies and unfair competition, Ant and Alibaba have been splitting their businesses and independently seeking new deals, Reuters had already reported last year.
