Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is handing over control of Ant Group, which owns Alipay.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Alibaba-affiliated company announced that it would terminate agreements that allowed Ma to maintain a dominant position within Ant Group’s corporate governance structure.
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The outspoken entrepreneur previously held more than half of Ant’s voting rights, despite not sitting on the company’s board of directors or being involved in day-to-day operations.
Ma exerted influence over Ant Group through a number of investment vehicles that held a combined 50.5 percent stake in the fintech behemoth.
Moving forward, Ant stated that Ma and nine other company executives and employees had agreed to use their voting rights independently of one another.
According to Reuters, Ma will own 6.2 percent of Ant Group shares once the changes announced over the weekend are implemented.
In 2020, shortly before Ant’s IPO, which was expected to raise a record $34 billion, Ma drew the ire of Chinese authorities when he referred to the country’s banks as “state-owned pawnshops” during a speech in Shanghai.
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Chinese regulators then blocked the upcoming IPO and ordered Ant to scale back its operations. The company was specifically ordered to return to its roots as a payment provider.
Following an antitrust investigation into the company’s alleged monopolistic practices, authorities fined Alibaba, Ma’s other company, $2.8 billion a year later. Ma has remained out of the public eye since.
