Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Ant Group founder Jack Ma is reportedly to lose control of the Chinese fintech giant after Ant Group shareholders agreed to set up a series of adjustments that cost him a majority of his vote.
Reported by ReutersThe move marked another major development after a regulatory crackdown that derailed an initial public offering of shares o initial public offering (IPO) Ant Group worth US$37 billion or about IDR 578 trillion (IDR 15,633/US$ exchange rate) at the end of 2020. This led to a forced restructuring of the fintech giant.
According to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with the exchange in 2020, Ma only owns a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of the giant ecommerce Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said Ma exercised control over the company through related entities.
The prospectus says Ma’s investment vehicle, Hangzhou Yunbo, has control over two other entities that together own 50.5 percent of Ant.
Ant said Ma and nine other major shareholders had agreed to no longer act together in exercising their voting rights and would only vote independently.
But he previously owned more than 50% of the voting rights in Ant. But according to the calculations Reutersthe changes sent its shares down to 6.2%.
Currently, Ant has eight boards of directors. However, they said they would add a fifth independent director to the board so that independent directors would make up the majority of the company’s board.
“As a result, there will no longer be a situation where direct or indirect shareholders have sole or joint control over the Ant Group,” Ant said in its official statement, quoted on Saturday (7/1/2023).
(luc/luc)
