Advertisement
Chinese fintech giant Ant Group gets approval for no-controller status, ending Jack Ma’s reign before seeking IPO
- The People’s Bank of China announced on Saturday that Alipay.com Co has no controller, paving the way for owner Ant Group’s IPO
- The restructuring divides the 53 per cent share of voting rights previously controlled by Ma among him and nine others, and further cleaves it from Alibaba
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
5
Coco Fengin Beijing
China’s central bank has agreed that Ant Group’s mobile payment app Alipay has no controller, a crucial step in the fintech giant’s overhaul deemed necessary to put its much-anticipated initial public offering back on track.
Advertisement
The restructuring saw the voting rights of founder Jack Ma shrink to just 6.21 per cent from 53.46 per cent. The move is seen as paving the way for Ant to resume its public listing that was derailed in 2020 following a controversial speech given by Ma.
The billionaire’s share of the voting rights are now divided among Hangzhou Junhan Equity Investment – owned by Ma and four others with 31.04 per cent of voting rights – and Hangzhou Junao Equity, another firm owned by five other individuals with 22.42 per cent of voting rights. The companies’ voting shares are equal to their ownership stakes.
The People’s Bank of China announced the decision concerning Alipay.com Co, one of Ant’s major entities in China, on its website on Saturday. Ant is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.
An Ant representative said that its “corporate governance optimisation announced on January 7, 2023, has been completed and it will not affect the company’s day-to-day business operations”.
When it announced the change in January, Ant said the new shareholding structure will be “more transparent and diversified … facilitating the steady development of the company”.
Advertisement