Ant to buy back shares at 70% lower valuation than at IPO - Times of India
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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 ex