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Jack Ma’s Ant Group Agrees to Restructure After Pressure From China’s Regulators: Report
Regulators have been clamping down on Ant Group, even cancelling its expected $35 billion twin IPO late last year.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 11:55 a.m. Published Feb 3, 2021, 3:58 p.m.
Chinese regulators have agreed on a restructuring plan with Ant Group that will combine all its business segments, including its blockchain arm, into a financial holding company.
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- As a financial holding company, Ant would be subject to capital requirements like those for banks, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter.
- The group had previously proposed only including its financial segments in the holding company.
- An official announcement on plan is expected before the start of China’s New Year holiday on Feb. 12.
- The restructure is part of a Chinese government campaign to increase supervision of the fintech sector.
- In November, Ant Group’s expected $35 billion initial public offering was suspended on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges supposedly due to changes in China’s regulatory environment for fintech firms.
- Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Group, had been keeping a low profile since October when he criticized China’s financial system and its state-dominated banking sector at a Shanghai event.
- Ant Group has its own blockchain, AntChain, building off it to launch a cross-border trading platform in September.
Read more: Jack Ma’s Ant Group, 3 Other Digital Banks Get OK to Operate in Singapore
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