Billionaire Jack Ma has not become the richest man in Asia after all because the long-awaited IPO of fintech company Ant Group was called off at the last minute.
The co-founder of online store empire Alibaba would benefit significantly from the listing of shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong but lost almost 3 billion dollars in assets due to the surprising intervention by Chinese authorities.
Ant Group, the financial services arm of Alibaba, would raise $ 34.5 billion with the sale of shares on the stock exchange. The company thus signed for the largest IPO ever. Ma’s stake would be worth $ 27.4 billion at the set issue price.
It seemed likely that this value would only increase, given the strong interest in Ant Group shares in the run-up to the IPO.
Chinese authorities had other plans. They pointed out changes in regulations to Ant Group, after which the stock exchange in Shanghai ended the planned stock listing. Subsequently, Ant Group also decided to stop going to the stock exchange in Hong Kong.
Ma’s tech group Alibaba, which owns about a third of all shares in Ant Group, plunged more than 8 percent on the New York stock exchange. Ma owns more than 4 percent of Alibaba, which took a toll on his assets.
For the time being, Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani is known as the richest man in Asia, according to Bloomberg’s index of wealthiest persons. His net worth is estimated at $ 70 billion, Ma’s at $ 58 billion. Ambani is in charge of Reliance, a conglomerate that started in the oil sector but focuses more and more on digital services such as chat.