Jack Ma’s Ant Group – which owns China’s largest digital payment platform Alipay and is an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba – announced on Monday that it will undergo a sweeping restructuring on the order of the Chinese government.
China has imposed a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, the fintech conglomerate whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November, underscoring Beijing’s determination to rein in its internet giants.
It comes two days after Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, of which Ant is an affiliate, was hit with a record $2.75 billion antitrust penalty as China tightens controls on the booming “platform economy”.
U.S.-listed shares of Alibaba were up 8% after Monday’s announcement, tracking a similar gain for its Hong Kong shares earlier in the day, with investors cheering the end of uncertainty for the e-commerce giant after the antitrust fine.
