The billionaire founder of Alibaba Jack Ma relinquished control of Ant Group, the Chinese multinational conglomerate affiliated with the e-commerce firm that also controls the AliPay payment system. The announcement comes from the same techno-financial company which, through a specific note: "No shareholder, alone or with other parties, will have control of Ant Group".
The restructuring of Ant Group
Jack Ma was in hand more than 50 percent of the voting rights by Ant Group. From now on, there will be a board of directors made up of 10 people - including the Chinese billionaire - all with the same right to vote.
The company's revolution began in 2020, after Ma's criticisms of the Chinese government, accusing it of getting in the way and hindering the business of technology companies. A few months later Ant tried to be listed on the Stock Exchange, but the IPO failed spectacularly, blocked by the Chinese authorities.
The decision of relinquish control of Ant by Ma therefore comes after more than two years of restructuring of the company, carried out with the aim of adapting to the very strict legislation that the Beijing government has imposed on the country's technology companies. A change that has caused Asian hi-tech companies to lose hundreds of billions of dollars of their value, reducing their revenues and their profits. Not surprisingly, from 2020 onwards, the value of the companies controlled by the Chinese billionaire has practically halved and Ma has lost the scepter of richest person in China.
