33% stake in Alibaba Ant Group
With Ma Win’s renunciation of management rights, the possibility of Ant Group’s IPO opens up
Alibaba (BABA) jumped 4.5% in pre-opening trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the 9th (local time) on news that co-founder Jack Ma would relinquish management rights to fintech company Ant Group.
According to MarketWatch, Alibaba was up about 9% in the Hong Kong stock market prior to this. Alibaba owns 33% of Ant Group.
Ant Group said over the weekend that Ma would no longer control the company, as a move to defuse tensions with Chinese regulators.
This should help revive Ant Group’s IPO plans, but the IPO schedule is uncertain as Chinese authorities could restrict the company’s listing at any time.
Reuters reported that Ant Group has no plans for an initial public offering (IPO) at this time.
Guest reporter Kim Jung-ah kja@hankyung.com
