Beijing said it suspended the $37bn listing of Ant Group, controlled by China’s richest man Jack Ma, to protect the country’s capital markets as investors reeled from the eleventh-hour decision.
The order to stop Ant from launching a record-breaking IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai, two days before trading was due to start, is likely to have come from the very top of the Chinese government, potentially from President Xi Jinping himself, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, said on Wednesday that officials had halted the IPO to “better maintain the stability of the capital markets and to protect investors’ interests”.
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