【Text/Observer Network He Xige Zhou Yi】
At the beginning of the new year, a key adjustment of Ant Group brushed the screen. Following the formal approval of state-owned capital investment last week, Ant Group issued an announcement over the weekend that Ma Yun no longer has a controlling stake in the company. The market is clearly optimistic, with Alibaba rising more than 8% during today's Hong Kong stock session, while the possibility of Ant Group's resumption of IPO has become the focus of speculation. In response, Ant responded that at present, Ant is still focusing on rectification and business upgrading, and has no plan to start listing.
What signal does Ant Group's recent equity change release? Cao Heping, a professor at Peking University's School of Economics, said in an interview with Observer.com that a series of recent actions such as the introduction of state-owned assets and the adjustment of shareholders' voting rights show that Ant Group is actively adjusting and improving itself under the guidance of supervision. As long as capital controls its own "boundaries", Ant Group can actively play its role and create and exert its social value.
On January 7, Ant Group issued an "Announcement on Continuous Improvement of Corporate Governance" disclosing that by adjusting the superstructure of major shareholders (Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao), the matching of shareholders' voting rights with economic interests was promoted: from Jack Ma and his concerted actors jointly exercising their share voting rights, to 10 natural persons, including Ant Group's management, employee representatives and founder Jack Ma, independently exercising their share voting rights, the governance structure is more robust and conducive to the company's long-term sustainable development.
Before the adjustment, Ma Yun indirectly controlled the voting rights of 53.46% of the shares of Ant Group and was the actual controller. According to the announcement, after the completion of the adjustment, the major shareholders of Ant independently exercise their share voting rights, independently exercise the voting rights of the shares of Ant Group held by each other without concerted action, and the shareholders do not individually or jointly form control at the level of the general meeting of Ant Group, nor do any shareholders nominate more than half of all directors. Therefore, there is no longer any situation where direct or indirect shareholders control Ant Group alone or jointly.
Screenshot of the announcement
The influence of Jack Ma is no longer the actual controller of Ant Group, and it has also extended to listed companies.
On the evening of January 8, a number of listed companies invested by Ant Group disclosed the latest equity changes: Hang Seng Electronics will have no actual controller, previously Jack Ma; Jack Ma will no longer have interests in Jinqiao Information, Longxin Technology, Jida Zhengyuan, Obi Zhongguang and other companies.
Alibaba also disclosed changes in the voting structure of major shareholders of Ant Group, a non-consolidated related party, and said that Alibaba Group's equity interest in Ant Group remains unchanged and that neither Alibaba Group nor any other shareholder controls Ant Group. After this change, the voting rights held by Ant Group shareholders will be more dispersed and the economic interests will be more aligned.
On January 9, Hong Kong stock Alibaba once rose more than 8%, and as of press time, it was reported at 109.6 Hong Kong dollars / share, refreshing a new half-year high.
This key adjustment has also caused market speculation about Ant Group's resumption of IPO. Relevant people of Ant responded to the Observer Network that at present, Ant is still focused on rectification and business upgrades, and has no plans to start listing.
In addition, under the circumstances of frequent actions and continuous improvement of corporate governance in the past period, as one of the important links of Ant's rectification, the capital increase and share expansion plan of Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ant Consumer Finance") has also been settled not long ago.
On December 30, 2022, the official website of the Chongqing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau released the "Reply of the Chongqing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau on Agreeing to Increase the Registered Capital and Adjust the Equity Structure of Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd."
The reply stated that it agreed to increase the registered capital of Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ant Consumer Finance") from RMB8 billion to RMB18.5 billion. At the same time, the approval also said that it agreed to Hangzhou Jintou Digital Technology Group Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Sunny Optical Co., Ltd., and Transfar Zhilian Co., Ltd. to invest in Ant Consumer.
The reply pointed out that after the increase in registered capital and the adjustment of the equity structure, Ant Consumption Gold will have 12 shareholders, and the top three shareholders in the shareholding ratio are: Ant Technology Group Co., Ltd. contributed 9.25 billion yuan, with a capital contribution ratio of 50%; Hangzhou Jintou Digital Technology Group Co., Ltd. invested 1.85 billion yuan, with a capital ratio of 10.000%; Nanyang Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. contributed 1.201 billion yuan, with a capital contribution ratio of 6.491%, in addition, Chongqing Rural Credit Investment Group Co., Ltd. also appeared in the list of shareholders.
Among the new shareholders, Hangzhou Jintou Digital Technology Group Co., Ltd. was renamed and established in April 2021 with a registered capital of RMB 1 billion, the main shareholders are Hangzhou Financial Investment Group and Hangzhou Jintou Construction and Development Co., Ltd., and the actual controller is Hangzhou Municipal People's Government. The wholly-owned controlling shareholder of Chongqing Rural Credit Group is Chongqing Supply and Marketing Holding (Group) Co., Ltd., and the actual controller is Chongqing Supply and Marketing Cooperative.
Figure/Sky eye check
Regarding Ant Group's recent series of adjustments, Cao Heping, a professor at Peking University's School of Economics, told Observer.com that Ant Group's series of adjustments in recent years, including the recent introduction of state-owned assets and the adjustment of shareholders' voting rights, can be seen that it is actively adjusting and improving itself under the guidance of supervision. We can see that as long as capital controls its own "boundaries", Ant Group can actively play its role and create and exert its social value.
The principle behind this is actually very similar to the principle of separating the "plant-grid" of national power resources. "Factory" resources are competitive and belong to the market; "Web" resources are public goods and common goods, and are owned by the public sector. Power plants can be operated in a variety of ways, even private plants, power generation and then connected to the grid - but "grid" resources should not be privately owned.
Cao Heping believes that Ant Group's cash loans (such as "borrowing" and other products) are a composite product of network resources and factory resources. On the one hand, the loan network has the attributes of a public platform, and its database resources also have the characteristics of network generation or management. But at the same time, like e-commerce, its operation and management are competitive. Distinguish between the "network" resources and "factory" resources of Ant Group, which belong to the part of competitive products, and private capital can operate; However, public goods that belong to the nature of the network must be operated transparently under strict supervision; It is of a state secret nature and must be carried out in special operations.
Linked to the networked sharing economy supported by digital technology: any platform network, after its strategic position has reached a considerable extent, it itself has transformed from a competitive product to a public platform. In the United States, if your market share reaches 9%, then you have market power, and you may need to consider antitrust (not privately converted into public goods and owned) issues.
Cao Heping pointed out that a digital platform like Ant Financial, whether the total number of users reaches 9% of the Chinese, or the operating volume, capital circulation and other indicators reach 9%, will trigger the mechanism of shifting from competitive products to public platforms. As long as the threshold of public goods is reached, ants should consciously report to the supervision, and the public sector should also take the initiative to supervise such market-influential entities to help them separate the governance and operation of "network" resources and "factory" resources.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer Network and may not be reproduced without authorization.