China suspends Jack Ma’s $34 billion Ant Group listing — Alibaba shares plunge, Ma loses over $3 billion

• The Shanghai Stock Exchange has suspended Ant Group’s IPO before its listing on November 5.
• The Chinese fintech giant’s listing was set to be the biggest ever overshadowing Saudi Aramco ($29.4 billion) and its own sister company Alibaba ($25 billion).
• On Monday (November 3), Ma and Ant’s senior executives had been summoned by the Chinese regulators.

A huge blow for Ant Group and Jack Ma as his $34 billion initial public offering (IPO) has hit a hurdle with the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspending its listing. The world’s biggest IPO Ant was scheduled for a dual listing on November 5 — on Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses.

Alibaba shares plunged by almost 10% in Hong Kong after the news of Ant Group's IPO suspension while founder of the group Jack Ma lost over $3 billion in his net worth.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange has cited changes in the regulatory environment as the reason behind this sudden suspension. This move comes after China’s regulators warned Ma and his company that the listing would mean the group would be subject to scrutiny and could face new curbs to its expansion. On Monday (November 3), Ma, the founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Ant’s senior executives had been summoned by the Chinese regulators.

“Recently, it happened that your company’s actual controller, chairman and general manager were jointly conducted supervisory interviews by relevant departments, and your company also reported on major issues such as changes in the financial technology regulatory environment. This major event may cause your company to fail to meet the issuance and listing conditions or information disclosure requirements,” said the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

“Views regarding the health and stability of the financial sector were exchanged,” the New York Times quoted the Ant Group’s statement. The company also said that it is “committed to implementing the meeting opinions in depth.”

The Ant Group has also said that the investors would be refunded “application monies” relating to the IPO.

The exchange said that the suspension was in accordance with Article 26 of the "Administrative Measures for the Registration and Administration of Initial Public Offerings on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (for Trial Implementation)" and Article 60 of the "Shanghai Stock Exchange Rules for the Review of Stock Issuance and Listing".

Shares listed on the Shanghai exchange were set to be priced at 68.8 yuan ($10.27). The Chinese fintech giant’s listing was set to be the biggest ever overshadowing Saudi Aramco ($29.4 billion) and its own sister company Alibaba ($25 billion).

Earlier known as Ant Financial, Ant Group is the fintech arm of the Alibaba Group.


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