Jack Ma To Give Up Control Of China’s Ant Group – China’s Ant Group says it would modify its shareholding structure so that its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, will no longer control the fintech giant. “No shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group” after the completion of the adjustment, the company said in a statement on Saturday. Following a regulatory crackdown that thwarted Ant’s $37bn initial public offering (IPO) in late 2020 and forced the financial technology company to restructure, this is an important new development.
According to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with exchanges in 2020, Ma exercised influence over the company through linked entities while holding only a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba. The former English teacher turned tech superstar, who founded Alibaba and was China’s richest person before the country’s tech crackdown, has been rarely seen in public since criticizing the attitude of Chinese authorities towards tech businesses at a Shanghai summit two years ago.
In November, it was reported that Ma’s net worth had decreased from nearly $50 billion to $21.7 billion as regulators took moves against his vast Chinese tech company. According to calculations by Reuters, Ma’s portion in Ant’s voting rights will decrease from more than 50% to 6.2% as a result of the adjustments. Ant also announced that it will appoint a fifth independent director to its board, making independent directors the majority of the board. There are now eight board directors.
In November, it was reported that Ma and his family had been hiding in Tokyo during Beijing’s crackdown on the country’s leading technology companies and its most influential and wealthy businesspeople. This week, various outlets reported that he was spotted in Thailand. Bloomberg claimed that Ma was spotted visiting the Michelin-starred restaurant Jay Fai in Bangkok, according to an Instagram post. On Friday, the restaurant published a photo of its chef posing with Ma.
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