Chinese billionaire Jack Ma to give up control of Ant Group?

Two years after being derailed by the China's regulators, billionaire Jack Ma plans to give up control of financial technology company Ant Group Co in an effort to move away from affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Ma, who doesn't hold any titles at Ant, currently controls 50.52% of voting rights in the company. He could transfer some of his voting power to other Ant officials including Chief Executive Eric Jing, Dow Jones cited the people as saying.

Ma has been restructuring his sprawling e-commerce and fintech empire in the aftermath of a sweeping regulatory clampdown on the industry that began in late 2020 when Chinese regulators derailed Ant's planned $37 billion initial public offering, which would have been the world's largest.

A change in control at Ant could slow plans to revive its long-sought IPO, the Journal reported, as China's domestic A-share market requires companies to wait three years after a change in control to list.