Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, said it had no immediate plans to revive its initial public offering (IPO), dispelling market speculation it would soon go public.
The Chinese company shocked investors in November 2020 by cancelling its US$39.7 billion IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai less than 48 hours before market debut amid regulatory scrutiny. Since then, the question as to whether the company, founded by Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma, would restart its listing process continues to linger.
Speculation intensified in the past 10 days, after Ma gave a rare public speech at the 20th anniversary of Ant’s mobile payments platform Alipay in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, saying he had faith in the “next 20 years of Ant” and expected “more miracles”. The widely-reported address, along with Ant’s appointment of a new CEO, has renewed talks that an IPO could be around the corner.
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Ant poured cold water on such speculation. In a statement posted on its Weibo account on Thursday, the company said it “currently has no plans to go public, and there are no plans for a so-called ‘back-door listing’.” A back-door listing refers to the floating of assets through an existing listed vehicle.
The company said it recently found that “some institutions have claimed on multiple platforms that Ant Group is about to go public through a back-door listing”. It asked internet users to be wary of such “stock recommendation scams”.
Amid Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on Ant, the Alipay operator was fined nearly US$1 billion by China’s central bank. To rectify its business in accordance with government requirements, the company boosted the capital base of its credit unit and distanced itself from Ma. Early last year, Ant announced that the founder would cede control of the fintech giant. At the end of 2023, the central bank declared that Ant’s mobile payments platform Alipay had “no actual controller”.
Ant conducted a sweeping reorganisation this year by restructuring its operations into several relatively independent business units with their own boards of directors, paving the way for future spin-offs. They include overseas unit Ant International, database operation OceanBase, as well as Ant Digital Technologies.
The company said earlier this month that its current president and finance chief Cyril Han Xinyi would assume the CEO post from March 2025, taking over from Eric Jing Xiandong, who would remain group chairman.
While Ant remains a private company, its financial performance is closely watched by the market. One common method used by investors to calculate Ant’s overall profits is analysing its quarterly contributions to Alibaba. According to the latest numbers from Alibaba’s earnings report, Ant’s net profit might have surged nearly 193 per cent in the September quarter.
Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
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