New York, Jul 28 (EFE) .- The billionaire founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, plans to cede control of Ant Group, the Chinese financial technology company whose historic IPO was stopped in 2020 by the Beijing authorities and which is in the process of being restructured , as reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said Ma could lose control of the company by transferring some of his voting power to other company executives, including CEO Eric Jing.
According to the WSJ, Ant has informed regulators of the billionaire businessman’s plans as he prepares to modify his business structure in a move that would have the approval of the authorities.
The billionaire businessman currently manages more than half of Ant Group’s shares through entities he owns, but has for years considered stepping aside, as he did previously with Alibaba, where he stepped down as chairman in 2019 and retains less than 5% ownership.
Ant Group, which was created as a subsidiary of the Chinese e-commerce giant, is the operator of Alipay, China’s leading electronic payment platform.
Its long-awaited IPO in Hong Kong in 2020, which was to be the largest operation of its kind in history, was cut short at the last moment by a decision by the Chinese authorities, who decided to increase their regulatory scrutiny of the technology sector for alleged monopolistic practices and threats to national security.
China’s move came shortly after Ma publicly criticized financial bureaucracy in the Asian giant, and the billionaire has since chosen to keep a low profile and generally avoid public appearances.
Under pressure from regulators, Ant Group is in the process of distancing itself from Alibaba and reorganizing itself as an investment company that controls a series of subsidiaries running different parts of its business.
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Billionaire Jack Ma plans to relinquish control of Ant Group, according to the WSJ