CNN —
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma will no longer control Ant Group after the fintech giant’s shareholders agreed to transform its shareholder structure, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
After the adjustment, Ma’s voting rights will drop to 6.2%, according to the announcement and CNN calculations.
Before the restructuring, Ma held 50.52% voting rights in Ant through Hangzhou Yunbo and two other companies, according to the IPO prospectus filed with the stock exchanges in 2020.
Ant added in the statement that the voting rights adjustment, a move to make the company’s shareholder structure “more transparent and diversified,” will not result in any change in shareholders’ economic interests.
Ant said its 10 major shareholders, including Ma, had agreed to no longer act collectively in exercising their voting rights and would only vote independently, and thus no shareholder would have “sole or joint control of the Ant Group.”
The voting rights overhaul came after Chinese regulators halted Ant’s $37 billion IPO in November 2020 and ordered the company to restructure its business.
As part of the company’s restructuring, Ant’s consumer finance unit requested a registered capital increase from $1.2 billion to $2.7 billion. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently approved the application, according to a government notice issued late last week.
After the fundraiser, Ant will control half of its main consumer finance entity, while an entity controlled by the Hangzhou Municipality will own a 10% stake. Alibaba and Ant have been headquartered in Hangzhou since their establishment.
Ant Group is a fintech subsidiary of Alibaba, both founded by Ma.