Chinese billionaire Jack Ma to give up control of Ant Group

Ant Group’s founder Jack Ma will no longer control the Chinese fintech giant after shareholders agreed to implement a series of adjustments.

Ma will give up most of his voting rights, the group said on Saturday.

The move marks another big development after a regulatory crackdown that put an end to Ant’s $37 billion IPO in late 2020 and led to a forced restructuring of the company.

Ma only owns a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, but has exercised control over the company through related entities, according to Ant’s IPO prospectus filed with the exchanges in 2020.

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The logo of Ant Group, an affiliate of Alibaba, is pictured at the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. (REUTERS/Aly Song / Reuters Photos)

Ma is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group.

Ma previously possessed more than 50% of voting rights at Ant but the changes will mean that his share falls to 6.2%, according to Reuters calculations.

Jack Ma, billionaire founder of Ant Group. (REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo/File Photo/File Photo / Reuters Photos)

Ant also said it would add a fifth independent director to its board so that independent directors will comprise a majority of the company’s board. It currently has eight board directors.

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Alibaba founder Jack Ma (Getty Images / Getty Images)

“As a result, there will no longer be a situation where a direct or indirect shareholder will have sole or joint control over Ant Group,” it said in its statement.

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Ant’s market listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai was derailed days after Ma publicly criticized regulators in a speech in October 2020. Since then, his sprawling empire has been under regulatory scrutiny and going through a restructuring.

Reuters contributed to this report.