Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is giving up control of digital finance company Ant Group. The founder of the company and the largest Chinese trading platform Alibaba is withdrawing further from his online empire, according to a statement by the Ant Group on Saturday. Ant Group is behind the Chinese mobile payment system Alipay with more than a billion users.
The background to this step is likely to be considerable pressure from China's financial authorities. The government is increasingly trying to control parts of China's private sector, particularly in the booming technology sector. Two years ago, China's financial regulator temporarily blocked the IPO of the Ant Group, Alibaba's financial services provider. The IPO planned for 2020 should be the largest in the world at $35 billion.
The trigger was a speech by Jack Ma , in which he had criticized the Chinese government for its increasingly regulatory impulses shortly before the IPO. China's leaders fear that online corporations like Ant Group could wield too much financial power.
Ma's withdrawal could allow for an IPO
Ma previously indirectly controlled more than 50 percent of the voting rights in Ant through a company. The new voters will include executives of the Ant Group, such as CEO Eric Jing or Vice President Xiaofeng Shao, who is also secretary-general of the Communist Party Committee, according to the Wall Street Journal is a party within the company and thus represents the interests of the government.
Founder Ma's retirement could revive Ant Group's IPO plans. However, Chinese stock markets require a waiting period of two to three years after such corporate governance changes. Hong Kong, on the other hand, only has one year.
Since 2020, 58-year-old multi-billionaire Ma has largely withdrawn from the public eye. According to press reports, he lived longer in Japan last year and was spotted in Thailand last week.
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