When Jack Ma last week chose to speak truth to power about the failings of China’s financial system, he was aiming very high — perhaps too high.
The founder of ecommerce business Alibaba, already China’s wealthiest man, was set to become substantially richer when his online finance spin-off Ant Group debuted on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges on Thursday. At $37bn, it was going to be the world’s largest ever initial public offering.
But after Mr Ma criticised China’s state-dominated banking sector at a public forum, the country’s best-known entrepreneur on Monday was summoned by regulators to discuss hastily issued industry guidelines that could hit Ant’s future profits. On Tuesday night, the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges both announced Ant’s IPO would be postponed.