The plan under consideration for Ant involves shifting its financially-licensed businesses — which include its payments, lending, insurance and wealth management ventures — into a new holding company. Ant may also need to raise capital to satisfy PBoC guidelines, which along with requirements on capital adequacy, risk control and governance, make financial holding companies more akin to banks than tech companies.
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China plots ‘rectification’ drive to bring Jack Ma’s Ant Group to heel
“Ant has repeatedly emphasised it’s a technology company and the market valued it as one, but if it’s remade into a financial holding company, it will become a financial institution at heart, and the market will need to revalue it,” said He Zhisong, a lawyer at Zhong Lun, a law firm. “To head off antitrust concerns, Ant may also need to spin off some of its business lines.”
