China’s Ant Group says it will adjust its shareholding structure so that its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, will no longer hold control over the fintech giant.
“No shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group” after the completion of the adjustment, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
The move marks another big development after a regulatory crackdown that scuppered Ant’s $37bn initial public offering (IPO) in late 2020 and led to a forced restructuring of the financial technology company.
While Ma owns only a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, he exercised control over the company through related entities, according to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with the exchanges in 2020.
The former English teacher turned tech superstar, who founded Alibaba and was China’s richest person until the country’s tech clampdown, has rarely been seen in public since criticising the attitude of Chinese regulators towards tech companies at a summit in Shanghai two years ago.
Ma’s net worth had more than halved from almost $50bn to $21.7bn (£18bn), it was reported in November, as regulators targeted actions against his immense Chinese tech empire.
Ma previously possessed more than 50% of voting rights at Ant but the changes will mean his share falls to 6.2%, according to Reuters calculations.
Ant also said it would add a fifth independent director to its board so that independent directors would comprise a majority of the company’s board. It currently has eight board directors.
In November, reports emerged that Ma had been hiding out in Tokyo with his family during Beijing’s crackdown on the country’s star tech firms and its most powerful and wealthy business people.
This week, media reports said he had been seen in Thailand. Ma was spotted at the Michelin-starred restaurant Jay Fai in Bangkok, according to an Instagram post, Bloomberg reported. The eatery shared a photo of its chef posing with Ma on Friday.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
