/ world today news/ China’s State Market Regulation Administration has announced an investigation into Alibaba.
Alibaba is suspected of “conduct aimed at creating a monopoly”, specifically a policy of “forced exclusivity”, the regulator said in a statement. He examines the company’s “choose one or two” policy, which requires business partners not to work with competitors.
At the same time, the People’s Bank of China announced that representatives of financial regulators will meet with representatives of Alibaba’s subsidiary Ant Group.
Ant Group is a division of Alibaba, the financial technology giant that owns China’s largest payment service, AliPay. In early November, the company was due to go public in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It would be the largest initial public offering in history, with the company expected to raise up to $34.4 billion.
Two days before the scheduled start of trading, the company’s initial public offering was suspended. PRC regulators have notified Ant Group that it may not meet listing and disclosure requirements. The Ant Group report also said the initial public offering was halted due to “material issues” that arose after a conversation between regulators with owner Jack Ma and top company executives.
Before the initial public offering, the founder of “Alibaba” criticized the international rules for the activity of financial institutions. He stated that they stifle innovation and are like a “nursing home”. The Chinese authorities then summoned the businessman and held a conversation with him. To save relations with the authorities, Ma suggested in November that they divest some of Ant Group’s assets, but that did not help avoid violating the rules of an initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities have advised Ma not to leave the country after regulators suspended the listing of “Ant Group” on the stock exchanges, and the businessman has not appeared in public since then, the agency notes.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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