Ant Financial, the largest fintech company in the world, is shifting its focus towards technology services and away from consumer finance amid increasing scrutiny from China's regulators.
Ant Financial Services (Ant) is the most profitable affiliate of the Jack Ma controlled e-commerce giant Alibaba. With business segments spanning payments, micro lending, credit rating and wealth management Ant is deemed by the Chinese authorities to be in a position to cause systemic risks, according to a «Reuters» report.
Responding to the Chinese government clampdown on financial risk Ant now intends to shift away from payments and consumer finance in the next few years.
Hot IPO
As a result of the move revenue from financial services is projected to be cut to 6 percent from 11 percent, an almost a 50 percent reduction, helping Ant fall in line with the government’s strategy for the financial sector.
In five years' time the financial technology giant expects technology services should then constitute 65 percent of its revenue versus 34 percent generated last year.
The latest $10 billion funding round puts its valuation at $150 billion, according to Deal Street Asia. This is almost on par with Citibank's market cap and two-and-half times that of Switerland's UBS' even before its widely anticipated initial public offering this year.
