June 9 (Reuters) – China’s Ant Group has no plans to go public, the company said on its Wechat account on Thursday, in response to statements from sources that revealed Beijing had given the go-ahead provisional.
Chinese authorities have granted the group of billionaire Jack Ma a provisional authorization to relaunch its plan to IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Also according to these sources, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject, Ant, a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, would aim to file the preliminary prospectus relating to the IPO as early as next month.
The fintech giant, however, still has to await guidance from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on the specific timing for filing the prospectus, one of the sources said.
“On the advice of regulators, we are focused on steadily advancing our restructuring work and have no plans to launch an IPO,” the Ant Group denied in a brief statement.
In November 2020, the group had planned a record $37 billion (€34.51 billion) IPO, but China abruptly suspended the operation days before the start of listing.
Bloomberg reported earlier on Thursday that Chinese financial regulators have begun preliminary discussions about a possible relaunch of the IPO. The agency did not mention possible listing locations or timing.
Neither the CSRC nor China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for central leaders, immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment.
Chinese regulators have completed their investigations into Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi and two other companies and will authorize the redeployment of their apps in China this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The report was interpreted as the latest signal to investors that promises to ease the pressure on China’s internet sector are beginning to bear fruit.
Since the end of 2020, Ant has been undergoing a major restructuring led by Beijing.
Authorities also cracked down on Jack Ma’s business empire after Ma’s speech in Shanghai in October 2020 accused financial watchdogs of stifling innovation. (Reporting Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bangalore, Scott Murdoch and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; French version Augustin Turpin, editing by Kate Entringer)