Topline
Tech billionaire Jack Ma will reportedly give up control of Chinese fintech major Ant Group as part of an effort to ease regulatory concerns around the company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, a move that comes nearly two years after regulators in Beijing blocked the company from going public as part of a broader crackdown on Chinese tech majors.
Jack Ma, executive chairman of the Alibaba Group, gestures during a press conference with the Pac-12 … [+]
Key Facts
According to the Journal, Ma hopes the move will create separation between Ant and its former parent company and Chinese tech-giant Alibaba which was also founded by the billionaire.
Ma currently controls 50.52% of Ant’s shares and under the proposed move he would hand off a part of his voting power to senior Ant executives including CEO Eric Jing, the Journal reported.
After Ma relinquishes control, Ant will be transformed into a financial holding company which will then be regulated by the People’s Bank of China.
This move was not ordered by regulators in Beijing but it purportedly has their “blessing,” the report adds.
It is unclear if this will open the door for a future public listing for Ant.
Forbes Valuation
$24.5 billion. That is the current real time net worth of Jack Ma, according to Forbes’ real time tracker. This is down sharply from a net worth of around $60 billion in early 2021 when Chinese authorities had just begun their crackdown on his tech business empire.
Key Background
Ma has become more reclusive after regulators moved to shut down his planned $35 billion IPO for Ant Group. The halting of the public listing was part of a broader crackdown on Chinese tech giants which were emerging as dominant players in the digital payments space. Beijing has since tightened fintech regulation and has ordered major tech companies to comply. Besides the broader tech crackdown, many believe Ma and Ant Group were targeted after he publicly criticized China’s regulators and its state-owned banks in a speech. Ma briefly disappeared from public view after the start of the crackdown and has only made limited public appearances since then.
Further Reading
Jack Ma Plans to Cede Control of Ant Group (Wall Street Journal)
Jack Ma Plans to Give Up Control of Ant, Dow Jones Says (Bloomberg)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/07/28/jack-ma-reportedly-set-to-relinquish-control-of-ant-group-after-chinas-tech-crackdown/