Jack Ma has mostly disappeared from public view since giving a speech that criticized regulators on the eve of the scuttled Ant listing in 2020. Many of his peers have relinquished their formal corporate roles and increased donations to charity to align with President Xi Jinping’s vision of achieving “common prosperity.”

Chinese Billionaire Jack Ma has given up control of Ant Group Co., China’s biggest fintech platform, which he helped create. Jack Ma is giving up controlling rights of Ant Group Co., as the billionaire further retreats from his online empire following the country’s unprecedented tech crackdown.

According to an announcement on Saturday, the company will give 10 individuals, including the founder, management, and staff, voting rights independently, effectively removing Ma’s voting control of Ant.

The adjustment will not change the economic interests of any shareholders. Ma has mostly disappeared from public view since giving a speech that criticized regulators on the eve of the scuttled Ant listing in 2020. Many of his peers have relinquished their formal corporate roles and increased donations to charity to align with President Xi Jinping’s vision of achieving “common prosperity.”

The change of control could mean that Ant will have to wait longer for a much-anticipated resumption of its initial public offering. Companies can’t list domestically on the country’s so-called A-share market if they have had a controller change in the past three years — or in the past two years if listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market. For Hong Kong’s stock market, this waiting period is one year.

Ma still holds voting rights and economic interests in the company following the change. In a filing in July, affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reiterated that Ma “intends to reduce and thereafter limit his direct and indirect economic interest in Ant Group over time” to a percentage that doesn’t exceed 8.8%.

Note:- Ant Group formerly known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group. The group owns the world’s largest mobile (digital) payment platform Alipay, which serves over 1.3 billion users and 80 million merchants, with total payment volume (TPV) reaching ¥118 trillion RMB in June 2020.

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