Arabic
English
Tamil
Vietnamese
Filipino
Indonesian
Español
تسجيل الدخول
In a surprising move, Ant Group announced a share buyback that values the fintech giant at 78.54 billion USD. This valuation is significantly lower than the 315 billion USD valuation the company had during its abandoned IPO in 2020. The buyback offer allows shareholders to exit the company after a prolonged regulatory overhaul. The announcement came a day after Ant was fined 984 million USD, signalling the conclusion of a lengthy regulatory shake-up in the internet sector. Ant Group proposed repurchasing up to 7.6% of its equity interest, offering a valuation of approximately 567.1 billion yuan (78.54 billion USD). This represents a substantial 75% discount from its 2020 valuation, which would have made it the world's largest IPO if it had not been halted by Chinese regulators.
Ant Group has announced that its major shareholders, Hangzhou Junhan Equity Investment Partnership and Hangzhou Junao Equity Investment Partnership, will not participate in the share buyback. These entities collectively hold more than 50% of Ant's shares on behalf of the company's executives and employees. The buyback plan offers liquidity to existing investors, even though the valuation is significantly lower than previous fundraising rounds. The unexpected share buyback comes after Ant and its subsidiaries were fined a total of 7.12 billion yuan by China's central bank, which is seen as a step towards securing a financial holding company license and reviving plans for a stock market listing.
Movement of Alibaba in the last five years. (Source: Trading Economics)
Sources:
https://tradingeconomics.com/baba:us
https://www.asiafinancial.com/in-surprise-share-buyback-ant-values-firm-75-below-ipo