Jack Ma Agrees To Leave His Control Over Ant Group, A Fintech Giant From China

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma. (photo: Twitter @jackma)

JAKARTA - Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma will no longer control fintech giant Ant Group as part of recent changes to the company's management structure.

Ant Group has officially announced that Ma has agreed to hand over control of Ant Group as part of further corporate governance optimization and restructuring.

Prior to the change, Ma was a person in control in Ant, exercising control over the company through a related entity other than 10% of its shares in Ant.

After the restructuring process is complete, not a single shareholder has control over Ant, the company said in a statement quoted by Cointelegraph. Major shareholders such as Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao will independently exercise their voting rights in Ant.

"This adjustment will not result in any changes to the economic interests of any Ant Group shareholder and their beneficiaries," Ant added.

According to some analysts, Ant's restructuring and Ma's release of control over the company could have a positive impact on the company in the long term.

Wang Pengbo, a senior financial analyst at BoTong Analysys, believes that the new company structure with more diverse voting rights is more stable. This paved the way for future public going, although listing in the near future is highly unlikely," he said.

In the midst of news Ma handed over control of Ant, shares of Ant-affiliated company, Alibaba, jumped significantly. Alibaba's shares have risen nearly 10% on the New York Stock Exchange since Ant made an announcement, according to data from TradingView.

As previously reported, Ant is trying to make the largest initial public offering (IPO) in 2020, planning to raise around US$30 billion (Rp466 trillion). The Chinese government finally chose to stop the Ant IPO, as local authorities wanted to assert their power over private businesses.

After the suspension of the IPO, Ant continues to actively explore the benefits of blockchain and digital assets. Having the world's largest digital payment platform, Alipay, Ant continues to be involved in China's national digital currency development after starting cooperation with China's People's Bank in 2017.

The company is also one of the Chinese tech giants that created a blockchain alliance over the past few years for related operations. The company has actively developed its blockchain business, AntChain, introducing new products in 2022.

Despite its clear interest in blockchain and related technologies, Ant is still moving to comply with China's negative stance on crypto. As Cointelegraph reported in March 2022, Ant Group is among the companies imposing some restrictions on their non-fungible token platforms, fearing the government's crackdown.