Jan 8 (Reuters) – China’s fintech giant Ant Group has no plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO), it said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Sunday.
“Ant Group has been focused on its business streamlining and optimization and has no plan for an IPO,” the company spokesman said.
Ant Group said on Saturday that its founder, Jack Ma, no longer controls the company after a series of share adjustments in which he gave up most of his voting rights.
Ma’s cession of control comes as Ant is about to complete its two-year regulatory-driven restructuring, with Chinese authorities poised to fine the company more than $1 billion, Reuters reported in November .
China’s domestic A-share market requires companies to wait three years after a change of control before listing. The waiting period is two years in the Nasdaq-style STAR market in Shanghai and one year in Hong Kong.
Ant’s $37 billion IPO, which would have been the world’s largest, was called off at the last minute in November 2020, leading to a forced restructuring of the fintech company and speculation that the Chinese billionaire would have to relinquish control.
Reporting by Yingzhi Yang in Shanghai and Rhea Binoy in Bengaluru; Edited by Elaine Hardcastle
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