China’s security regulator has denied speculation that Jack Ma’s fintech giant Ant Group is on track to revive its initial public offering (IPO) ambitions on domestic bourses.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said on 9 June that it has not engaged in any assessment or research work with regard to the relaunch of an Ant Group IPO, in response to domestic media reports that CSRC had established a work team to deal with the matter.
Ant Group originally planned to launch its IPO on the Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses in November 2020. The listing, which was expected to raise around USD$34.4 billion, was scuppered at the last minute by Chinese regulators, marking the acceleration of a crackdown on the domestic fintech sector.
At the start of 2021 Chinese central bank governor Yi Gang hinted at the possibility that Ant Group’s IPO plans could be revived however, as long sit achieved “good results” when it came to regulatory compliance.
CSRC officials said on 9 June that they would continue to “support compliant platform enterprises in listing both domestically and overseas.”
