Icon: enlarge
Jack Ma: Damper from the central bank
Photo: Toru Hanai / REUTERS
Ant should go back to its roots as a provider of payment services, according to a statement from the Central Bank (People's Bank of China) on Sunday.
The central bank did not directly order the break-up of the group, in which the retail giant Alibaba holds a third.
Instead, she said it was "necessary for the Ant Group to understand" that the deal needed to be "overhauled" - as soon as possible.
At the behest of the central bank, the group must now set up a separate financial holding company with sufficient capital.
The regulator also accused the Ant Group of having too great a market power, damaging competition and hurting the interests of hundreds of millions of consumers.
IPO canceled at short notice
The Ant Group actually wanted to go public.
At the beginning of November, however, the initial public offering (IPO) was canceled at short notice.
The reason was new plans for restrictions on online lending, which are likely to severely affect the Ant Group's business.
According to this, such companies will have to finance 30 percent of the loans that are granted jointly with banks.
However, experts also saw it as a possible step against a company that, in the eyes of the government, may have become too big for the state.
At the end of November, the Bloomberg news agency, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the chances of an IPO in the coming year were getting smaller and smaller.
The reason given was the new guidelines for lending to consumers.
Postponing the IPO in Shanghai and Beijing would be an additional setback for Alibaba founder Jack Ma and early-stage investors like Warburg Pincus, Bloomberg reported at the time.
The IPO was originally supposed to bring $ 34.5 billion into the coffers and put Saudi Aramco's largest IPO to date at $ 29 billion in the shade
la / reuters
