Jack Ma-backed Ant Group Co is proposing to buy back as much as 7.6% of shares in an effort to retain talent and offer an exit for investors ensnared by a years-long regulatory crackdown at the company. Ant’s planned repurchase of the equity would value the company at about 567.1 billion yuan ($78.5 billion), it said in a statement on Saturday. That is almost 70% lower than the $280 billion market capitalization it fetched in 2020 for the scrapped initial public offering.Chinese regulators are wrapping up a two-year crackdown on the country’s once freewheeling technology giants after slapping more than $1 billion of fines on Ant and Tencent Holdings Ltd. on Friday. Ant has completed its overhaul ordered by Beijing, pinching profitability and sapping growth at a sprawling platform that spanned lending and insurance to asset management.The buyback could enable Ant to shift its focus back to building business operations, easing pressure from pre-IPO investors seeking an exit due to its valuation slump. Global funds have grappled with how to assess their investments in Ant made in 2018 when the company was valued at about $150 billion. Silver Lake Management LLC, Warburg Pincus LLC, and Carlyle Group Inc. were among
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Ant to buy back shares at 70% lower valuation than at IPO – Times of India
