The Chinese financial behemoth Ant Group will no longer be under the leadership of Alibaba co-founder and CEO Jack Ma. According to Reuters, the shareholders of the fintech firm approved a set of changes that would result in the billionaire's exit from Ant Group.
Ant Group's anticipated $37 billion IPO in Hong Kong in 2020 had been halted by Chinese regulators.
Jack Ma held 53.46% of the Ant Group's stock.
Ant Group announced that it is changing its ownership structure so that;
“no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group.”
Previously, roughly 54% of the company's shares were indirectly owned by Jack Ma. The Chinese minority will only control around 6.2% of the voting power in the corporation after changes to the organizational structure. Since the founder of Alibaba made comments against government regulating practices, Chinese authorities have not been nice to him. A $2.75 billion punishment was previously imposed on Alibaba for allegedly unfair business practices.
Alibaba and Ant Group, both have some investments in the metaverse. Alibaba contributed $60 million to the Chinese manufacturer of augmented reality glasses Nreal in May of last year. Throughout the year, Ant Group maintained its optimistic stance on the metaverse and virtual reality. However, it will be intriguing to observe how the financial juggernaut will handle metaverse now that Jack Ma has stepped down as the company's largest shareholder.
Alibaba's founder fully vanished from the public eye in 2021 after Chinese regulators savaged Ant Group's IPO and probed his other enterprises. Where Jack Ma has been living for the past few months has been the subject of numerous reports. The Chinese millionaire was reportedly seen mingling in Bangkok this week, according to Reuters.
Since criticizing Chinese banking officials in Shanghai in 2022, Jack Ma has not made any public statements. .
