After months of regulatory developments regarding the dominance of Ant Group, the financial technology firm is now reportedly planning to restructure itself to become a financial holding firm.
Ant Group is looking to restructure itself to become a financial holding company, according to a «Wall Street Journal» report citing unnamed sources, and come under the supervision of China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC).
An outline of Ant’s plan has already been submitted and it could be finalized before the Chinese lunar new year holidays in mid-February, the report added.
IPO Revival
The submission of Ant’s restructuring plan and its decision to pursue a future under the central bank’s supervision comes just days after the PBoC publicly signaled the possibility of listing after the high-profile IPO pullout in November last year.
«You just follow the standard of legal structure, you will have the result,» said PBoC governor Yi Gang during a virtual session at the World Economic Forum Davos Agenda 2021 earlier this week.
According to Bloomberg estimates, Ant’s payment arm Alipay could already see its value halved under the newly proposed antitrust rules which could cause the fintech group’s overall valuation to fall to $108 billion from the original $320 billion before the IPO pullout.
