Alibaba Mulls Selling Shares to Ant for Buyback as Probe Ends

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is considering selling shares to Ant Group Co. as part of the fintech company’s planned buyback after financial regulators wrapped a nearly three-year probe into the financial technology company.

(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is considering selling shares to Ant Group Co. as part of the fintech company’s planned buyback after financial regulators wrapped a nearly three-year probe into the financial technology company.

Alibaba, which owns about a third of Ant, said in a stock exchange filing in Hong Kong that it received notice of the Ant share buyback program at a valuation of 567.1 billion yuan ($78.5 billion). 

On Saturday, Ant proposed to buy back as much as 7.6% of shares in an effort to provide a chance to cut stakes for investors ensnared by a years-long regulatory crackdown at the fintech powerhouse. 

Read more: Ant to Buy Back Shares at 70% Lower Valuation Than at IPO (3

The planned share repurchase would value the company at almost 70% less than its $280 billion market capitalization in 2020.

Read more: Jack Ma’s Clash With Beijing Costs Ant, Alibaba $850 Billion

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