China’s central leadership has given preliminary green light to Ant to resume its debut on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Ant, an affiliate of Alibaba, intends to present the preliminary prospectus for the public offering (IPO) next month, they said.
The financial startup would still need to await guidance from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on the specific timing of filing the prospectus.
Ant said in a public statement that there were no plans to relaunch its IPO, which was hastily filed at the request of the Chinese government in November 2020. At the time, the company was on course for a valuation of $315 billion. trillion) with an offer of US$ 37 billion (R$ 180.2 billion), a world record.
“Under the guidance of regulators, we are focused on steadily moving forward with our rectification work and have no plans to initiate an IPO,” Ant said.
The CSRC and China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media inquiries for central leaders, declined to comment on the matter when questioned by Reuters.
Chinese authorities ended the IPO and clamped down on the business empire of billionaire Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, after he accused the country’s financial watchdogs of stifling innovation in October 2020.
The derailment of Ant’s IPO marked the beginning of a regulatory crackdown to control China’s huge tech sector. The possible revival of an Ant share offering would be a clear sign of a thaw in relations.
The CSRC said in a statement that it has not carried out any assessment or research work on a potential Ant IPO.
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