Firm Without Actual Controller! Ant Completes Process of Removing Jack Ma-Happens Only in China

31.12.2023 - 02:12 / tech.hindustantimes.com

 Ant Group Co. finished a procedure to remove controlling stakeholders almost a year after billionaire Jack Ma promised to cede his dominance of the Chinese finance giant. As part of the process, the People's Bank of China granted an application to remove any controlling shareholders at Ant's Chinese payment platform Alipay, according to a statement from the central bank. The bank now lists Ant's Alipay as a firm without an actual controller. 

Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., announced his retreat from Ant earlier this year in one of a number of moves aimed at appeasing Chinese regulators. In January, the finance company said 10 individuals, including management and staff, would be offered voting rights that would effectively remove the billionaire's control. The adjustments will not change economic interests of any shareholders. 

The change of status with the PBOC will not affect the company's day-to-day business operations, an Ant spokesperson said in response to the central bank's statement.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. replaced one of its most experienced executives at the helm of e-commerce and plans to create a firm to oversee its investment assets around the world, the latest in a series of sweeping changes to roil the once-dominant Chinese online juggernaut.

Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu will replace Trudy Dai, one of an inner circle of partners present when Jack Ma founded the company in 1999, as head of the division that runs Alibaba's main Chinese e-commerce platforms Tmall and Taobao. Dai will instead help set up an entity to manage some of its vast portfolio of assets around the world. Alibaba, whose investments include stakes in startups as well as businesses from entertainment to physical retail, described that entity as overseeing the company's non-core assets without elaborating.

Alibaba's shares closed 2.7% higher in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

The surprise decision comes as Alibaba strives to rejuvenate a company after a series of mis-steps and regulatory scrutiny has eroded its market dominance in past years. Dai's departure marks the latest shakeup at the Chinese corporate icon, which has endured post-Covid consumption volatility, a bruising years-long government crackdown and — most recently — the surprise ascent of rivals including PDD Holdings Inc. and ByteDance Ltd.

Wu, who himself took over Alibaba just months ago, intends to cultivate new managers to steer his firm for the longer term. The decisions for now may reflect a desire to take direct control of under-performing divisions, while exploring sales of businesses considered less essential to the main cloud, retail and logistics divisions.

“Alibaba wants to go into battle with a light pack, and this is a way to handle a