Jan 8, 2018 (Reuters) – China’s Fintech Giant Ant Group said Sunday that it does not plan to launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO). This statement was sent to Reuters by the company in an e-mail.
The spokesperson for Ant Group stated that the company has not developed a plan to go public.
Ant Group announced Saturday that Jack Ma, its founder, no longer controls it after several shareholding adjustments which saw him lose most of his voting rights.
Ma’s resignation comes just as Ant nears the end of Ant’s two-year-long regulatory-driven restructuring. Chinese authorities are poised to impose a penalty of over $1 billion against the company, Reuters reported.
China’s A-share market is a waiting game. Companies must wait for three years to be listed after they have been changed in control. Two years in Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR marketplace and one year for Hong Kong are required to wait.
Ant’s $37Billion IPO was pulled in the final minutes of November 2020. This led to a restructuring of financial technology company and speculation that the Chinese billionaire would need to relinquish control.
Reporting by Yingzhi Yang, Shanghai; Rhea Binoy, Bengaluru. Editing by Elaine Hardcastle.
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