Ma previously owned more than 50% of voting rights at Ant but the changes mean that his shareholding has fallen to 6.2%, as per a Reuters report.
According to Ant’s IPO paper, filed in 2020, Ma owned only 10% stake in Ant, but he exercised control over the company through related entities. Hangzhou Yunbo, an investment vehicle for Ma, controlled over two other entities that own a combined 50.5% stake in Ant, as per the Reuters report.
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Ant Group said it would add a fifth independent director to its board so that they comprise a majority of the company’s board. It currently has eight board directors.
“As a result, there will no longer be a situation where a direct or indirect shareholder will have sole or joint control over Ant Group,” it said in its statement.
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Chinese regulators approved the fintech giant’s plan to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer unit, a progress in the government-ordered overhaul of the tech firm. This new plan is a scaled-back version of earlier efforts to boost capital to 30 billion yuan.
In a filing in July, affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had reiterated that Ma “intends to reduce and thereafter limit his direct and indirect economic interest in Ant Group over time” to a percentage that doesn’t exceed 8.8%.
Ma largely disappeared from public view since he criticised the Chinese regulators in 2020, accusing the state-run banks of having a “pawnshop mentality”. Media reports in November, said that
Ma had been living in Tokyo for about six months.
Both the companies he founded — Ant and e-commerce group Alibaba — have
faced a series of regulatory obstacles. The Chinese government also called off Ant’s $37 billion IPO and fined Alibaba a record $2.8 billion due to antitrust issues in 2021.
Post the alleged data leak of nearly one billion residents, China also summoned executives and senior technicians from Alibaba Group, after the hacker claimed the data came from Alibaba server
(With agency inputs)
