Stakeholders stand to reap billions in Ant Group listing

It is the hottest fintech in the world and is poised to go public in the coming months, unlocking vast riches for early investors and employees.

Ant Group, the online payment provider backed by Alibaba Group Holding. filed the prospectus for its initial public offering Tuesday, unveiling some of the people who stand to win big from the listing, Bloomberg reports.

The obvious one is Jack Ma, whose stake in Ant will be worth US$25 billion if it achieves the US$225 billion valuation people familiar with the matter have said it’s targeting. That could catapult him to among the world’s 10 richest people.

Ant Chairman Eric Jing’s fortune will swell to US$2.9 billion, and another 17 current and former Alibaba and Ant executives will join the ranks of billionaires, based on the ownership structure described in the prospectus.

An Ant representative declined to comment on the calculations.

Most of the billionaires, whose combined stake is valued at US$57.9 billion, are part of the Alibaba Partnership, an elite 36-person group set up a decade ago to encourage collaboration within the e-commerce giant, override bureaucracy and, crucially, determine the annual cash bonuses for all members of management. It now comprises Alibaba and Ant management members.

The 19 winners own their stake through entities known as Hangzhou Junao Equity Investment Partnership and Hangzhou Junhan Equity Investment Partnership, two limited partnerships registered in Hangzhou that together hold about half of Ant.

Alibaba itself is the largest holder of the financial-services firm, with a 33 percent stake. The remaining portion belongs to 29 other shareholders, including those that have invested in Ant over the years. Ma is the ultimate controller of the group, according to the prospectus.

With a 30 pecent holding in Ant, Junhan’s stake is valued at US$67.2 billion, while Junao’s 21 percent ownership is worth US$46.5 billion. Ma, Jing, Ant Chief Executive Officer Simon Hu and non-executive director Jiang Fang own shares in the two entities through a general partnership vehicle called Hangzhou Yunbo Investment Consultancy Co.

The limited partnership structure allows the general partner –in this case, Yunbo, which Ma controls – to exercise the entire voting power, regardless of the number of limited partners, according to Stephen Chan, a partner at Dechert LLP, an international law firm in Hong Kong that specializes in corporate finance.

Ma, however, has pledged to donate the economic interests of 611 million underlying Ant shares to charitable organizations and will lower his ownership to no more than 8.8 percent, as per the IPO prospectus and previous Alibaba filings.-Photo: China Daily