ALBAWABA — Jack Ma will relinquish control of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, the company announced on Saturday.
The move comes in response to a Communist Party crackdown on China's tech sector that targeted the billionaire.
Ma led a generation of Chinese tech moguls with his tale of rags-to-riches and partiality for public showmanship but fell from grace quickly.
In a speech at a summit in Shanghai, Ma said banks operated with a "pawnshop" mentality and accused financial watchdogs of stifling growth.
In retaliation, Beijing blocked Ant's $37 billion planned initial public offering in Hong Kong in November 2020, which would have been the world's largest, was cancelled at the last minute, following his barbed comments about government regulators.
Authorities later hit Alibaba - the internet titan co-founded by Ma with a record $2.75 billion fine for alleged unfair practices. Ant said in a statement that it was adjusting its ownership structure so that "no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group".
Ma previous indirectly controlled 53.46 percent of Ant's shares and deemed him the company’s "control person".
He will hold just 6.2 percent of the voting rights following the adjustment, based on information in the statement, noting that ten individuals - including the founder, management and staff - will "exercise their voting rights independently".
The overhauling of Ant Group's shareholding structure dilutes the voting power of its founder Ma to make the company more 'transparent and diversified'.
The adjustment will not change the economic interests of any shareholders.
Ant operates Alipay, the world's largest digital payments platform, which has hundreds of millions of monthly users in China and beyond.
Ant last month won approval to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer finance arm, in a sign that the official chokehold on the company may be easing.
