Billionaire Jack Ma plans to relinquish control of Ant Group, Dow Jones reported

With Ma relinquishing control, the revival of Ant’s initial public offering could be delayed another year or more, Dow Jones reported, citing Chinese securities regulations that require a waiting period on public listings for companies that have gone through a control change.

Ma, who has no role at Ant, currently controls 50.52% of the company’s voting rights. He could transfer some of his voting power to other Ant officials, including Chief Executive Eric Jing, Dow Jones said, citing the people.

Ant told regulators of Ma’s intention to relinquish control, the people said, adding that regulators did not demand the change but gave their blessing.

“With Jack’s resignation, a major key man risk will be removed from Ant’s neck,” said Justin Tang, head of Asian research at United First Partners. “While there will be a waiting period for Ant with this change, it won’t make much of a difference as weak markets will mean Ant is in no rush to list.”

U.S. depository receipts from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which owns a third of Ant, erased early gains to trade 0.3% lower in premarket trading at 6:44 p.m. in Singapore. Its Hong Kong shares fell 1.8% on Thursday to close at their lowest level since June 7.

The crushing of Ant’s $35 billion initial public offering in November 2020 sent shockwaves across the financial world, burning out investment firms from Carlyle Group Inc. to Temasek Holdings Pte hoping for a windfall. It also marked the beginning of a broader crackdown that has ensnared some of China’s fastest-growing companies.

Since then, the Hangzhou-based company has been reshaping itself to meet the demands of China’s watchdogs, which have vowed to curb tech companies’ “reckless” push into finance.

The Communist Party’s evolving stance towards the private sector has become one of the most closely watched developments in global markets in recent years.s, with some observers going so far as to say that China’s expanding internet sector is uninvestable.

Ma, who controls Ant, has all but disappeared from the public eye since he gave a speech criticizing regulators on the eve of Ant’s IPO. Many of his peers have given up their formal corporate roles and increased donations to charities to align with Xi’s vision of achieving “common prosperity.”