Will Jack Ma relinquish control of Ant Group Co.

Will Jack Ma relinquish control of Ant Group Co.

Hong Kong, 2.8.2022

According to some media reports, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma wants to relinquish control of Ant Group Co. This is part of an effort to appease regulators who have cracked down on Ma and his companies in recent years, according to Dow Jones, citing people familiar with the matter.

Ma is not an executive of Ant Group and does not sit on the board, but he owns just over 50% of the voting rights. Some of those rights could be transferred to CEO Eric Jing.

Downside: the planned IPO will have to be postponed for another year once a change at the top of the company has taken place.

The company has already informed regulators of Ma’s plan.

However, the change will not take place until the People’s Bank of China has officially accepted Ant’s application to convert into a financial holding company.