What did Ant Group do in over 20 days?, Group | Ant | Time after being fined over 7 billion

Release time:Apr 14, 2024 11:34 AM

How far is it to restart the IPO?

On July 7th, the financial regulatory authorities announced a heavyweight "fine" against Ant Group, imposing a fine of 7.123 billion yuan on Ant Group and its subsidiaries, demanding that Ant Group shut down its illegal "Mutual Treasure" business, and compensate consumers for their interests in accordance with the law.

Over 20 days have passed, and Ant Group and its subsidiaries have taken frequent actions, including share repurchases and personnel changes. There are even reports that Ant Group is paving the way for a restart of its IPO.

share repurchase

On July 8th, Ant Group immediately took a new action. In order to supplement the employee incentive pool to continuously attract talent and further meet the liquidity needs of shareholders, Ant Group will repurchase some of its existing shareholders' shares with its own funds, with a repurchase ratio not exceeding 7.6% of the total share capital. The proposed share repurchase price represents a valuation amount of approximately RMB 567.1 billion for Ant Group.

The above measures are the market-oriented behavior of Ant Group based on independent decision-making, and are also routine operations in the capital market. On the one hand, supplementing the employee incentive equity pool with share buybacks is beneficial for the long-term sustainable development of the enterprise; On the other hand, it has been five years since Ant Group's latest round of financing, and last year's dividends and this repurchase can to some extent meet the liquidity needs of shareholders.

It should also be noted that the major shareholders of Ant Group, Jun Han, and the natural person shareholders of Jun Aozhong, have given up participating in this repurchase, reflecting their confidence in the development prospects of the enterprise.

Subsequently, Alibaba announced that the proposal to repurchase no more than 7.6% of Ant Group's shares had been approved by the shareholders' meeting, and stated that the company had decided not to sell its shares.

Alibaba stated in its announcement, "Given that Ant Group continues to be an important strategic partner in several of Alibaba Group's businesses, Alibaba Group has decided not to sell any shares to Ant Group in this proposed repurchase in order to maintain its stake in Ant Group."

It should be noted that in recent years, Alibaba Group and Ant Group have made many discriminatory actions. For example, Ant Group Chairman Jing Xiandong and other Ant management have all withdrawn from Alibaba's partner list, and both parties have terminated the Data Sharing Agreement.

Regarding this, Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at the International Business School of Zhejiang University, stated that Alibaba and Ant can be completely separated, but due to the existence of common interests, their businesses cannot be completely separated and will continue to exist in the same ecosystem in the future.

Personnel changes

On July 14th, the former Chongqing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau announced the approval of Jin Xiaolong's qualifications as Chairman of Ant Consumer Finance.

According to public information, Jin Xiaolong is also Senior Vice President of Ant Group, Secretary of the Party Committee, and Chairman of the Online Commercial Bank. Before Jin Xiaolong, the position of Chairman of Ant Consumer Finance was held by Huang Hao, the President of Ant Group's Digital Finance Business Group. Huang Hao also served as the President of Online Commercial Bank. After stepping down in 2019, the position of President of Online Commercial Bank was taken over by Jin Xiaolong.

After obtaining the qualification for the position, Jin Xiaolong officially took over from Huang Hao and became the second "helmsman" of Ant Consumer Finance.

At the same time, there has been a new round of adjustment in the list of directors of Ant Consumer Finance. According to the Qichacha APP, Chairman Huang Hao, Directors Shao Wenlan, and Jiang Li have withdrawn, with Jin Xiaolong as Chairman, Zhou Shengxue, Zhang Jianguang, and Sun Yang as Directors, and Qian Jun as Independent Director.

Recently, Ningde Times disclosed the profit data of its joint venture Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. in its 2023 semi annual report. According to the semi annual report of Ningde Times, the recognized investment profit and loss of Ant Consumer Finance under the equity method during the reporting period was 44.1998 million yuan. According to Ningde Times holding 3.46% of Ant Consumer Finance, Ant Consumer Finance's net profit in the first half of 2023 was approximately 1.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 175%.

On July 21st, Ant Group announced the upgrade of its international business organization and appointed Yang Peng, Senior Vice President of Ant Group, as the President of Ant International Business Group, reporting to Chairman and CEO Jing Xiandong. Former President of Ant International, Zhao Ying, resigned from this position due to personal family reasons.

Yang Peng joined Ant International in February 2023 and is responsible for Alipay+global business. Yang Peng has served on Alipay for many years, leading and promoting the continuous innovation and development of Alipay's digital livelihood services. Before joining Ant Group, Yang Peng served as the Vice President of Dell Technologies, with extensive experience in cross market and cross-cultural management.

Jing Xiandong stated in an internal email that he expects Ant International to seize strategic opportunities on the basis of its existing business, achieve key breakthroughs, and truly enable global consumers to "travel the world with one wallet" and global merchants to "sell globally with one account.".

Pave the way for an IPO?

According to sources familiar with the matter, Ant Group is planning to restructure and divest some of its non core businesses, paving the way for the resumption of its IPO in Hong Kong.

The above-mentioned insiders stated that Ant Group is considering excluding blockchain, database management services, and international business from its main entity, which will apply for a financial holding license in mainland China. Once Ant Group completes its restructuring and obtains a financial holding license, it can go public in Hong Kong instead of seeking listings in both Hong Kong and Shanghai as before.

According to reports, some shareholders have been informed of this plan, but the restructuring plan has not yet been finalized and may undergo further changes.

People close to regulation have expressed to China News Agency that Ant Group's resumption of IPO requires legal compliance on the one hand, and on the other hand, the company will make judgments based on its own internal situation and external market conditions. Based on recent information, it is unlikely that Ant will relist in the short term.

China News Agency Guoshi Direct has also sought confirmation from Ant Group regarding the restructuring plan reported by the aforementioned media, but as of the time of publication, no response has been received from Ant Group.

However, some market insiders believe that Ant, who has been punished, is determined to "reinstall" and embark on the road. Based on the currently announced situation, this punishment is beneficial for Ant to improve corporate governance, strengthen risk management, and improve overall business compliance. It is expected that the progress of Ant's application for a financial control company and credit reporting business license may accelerate in the future.

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