Billionaire Jack Ma To Relinquish Control Of Ant Group – China’s Largest Fintech Platform
January 10, 2023: Jack Ma, the once-prominent Chinese entrepreneur who built the giant Alibaba Group and China’s largest fintech platform Ant Group, will no longer control the latter.
Ant Group said on Saturday that the company’s shareholders have agreed to adjust the shareholding rights of the founder, management and employees. The adjustment will see the Ant Group co-founder’s voting rights drastically reduced from 53.46%.
“The main result of the adjustment will be a change in the exercise of the voting rights of the main shareholders of the Ant Group, exercising voting rights jointly with the persons acting in concert, with each of the ten persons (including the founder, representative of our management and employees) exercising their voting rights independently. ,” according to an Ant statement.
Yunbo Investment is the general partner of both Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao, two entities that together hold 53.46% of Ant Group’s shares.
Jack Ma, Eric Xiangdong Jing, Simon Hu and Feng Jiang own 34%, 22%, 22% and 22% equity interests in Yunbo Investment respectively.
According to the previous agreement, Jack Ma can effectively exercise control over the voting results of Unbo Investment for matters related to the exercise of his rights as a shareholder of the Ant Group, thereby indirectly controlling the voting rights represented by 53.46% of the shares.
Ant group organized by Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao. The latest change removes Jack Ma as controller of the Ant group.
The development follows China’s massive crackdown on its tech and financial sector institutions over the past two years amid accusations of predatory lending and disproportionate control over the economy.
The flamboyant Chinese billionaire who built e-commerce giant Alibaba from scratch has retreated from all public view after criticizing Chinese regulators on the eve of an anti-IPO that was later scrapped.
According to the statement, 10 top individuals, including Ant Ma, will be given independent voting rights, effectively taking away controlling voting rights from the founder; However, the adjustments will not alter the financial interests of any of the parties involved.
Ma owns a 10% stake in Ant Financial, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, but controls the fintech platform through related entities, according to a Reuters report.
Following a crackdown by Chinese authorities, Ant Financial has made sweeping changes to its business operations to appease regulators.
The changes include increasing the capital base of its consumer loan entity and demarcating Alipathy ant businesses.
The recent change in voting rights also means that Ant’s IPO, which was the world’s largest at $34.5 billion in 2020, will be further delayed, as companies that implement a controller change cannot list for a period of three years from the date of the change. , according to capital market regulations in China.
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