The founder and former head of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Jack Ma, will relinquish control of fintech company Ant Group as part of a restructuring, the company announced on Saturday.
“No shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control of Ant Group” after the adjustment is complete, the company said in a statement.
Abuse of dominant position
The statement exposed the company’s previous complex structure, which showed that Jack Ma “indirectly” controlled 53.46% of Ant Group’s shares.
Since the end of 2020, the communist regime has multiplied the blows against large companies in the technology sector, prevented from raising money internationally or fined for abuse of a dominant position.
In 2020, they blocked the last-minute listing of Ant Group, the payments arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Beijing also fined Alibaba a record $2.75 billion for alleged unfair practices.
This week, authorities announced that Ant Group had won approval to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer credit arm, another sign authorities may be loosening their grip on the company.
Source: BFM TV
