 "Jack Ma")
They were just days away from a multi-billion-dollar windfall.
But now employees of Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. are stuck holding shares so difficult to value that even the company itself is struggling to determine a fair price. It has shelved a share buyback program for current and departing staff, in part because of uncertainty over how to value the company, according to Ant executive familiar with the matter.
The move underscores two intertwined challenges facing Ant, four months after Chinese authorities torpedoed its $35 billion initial public offering: The fintech giant’s future is still shrouded in doubt due to an ongoing lack of regulatory clarity, and employee morale is increasingly under threat. Ant is bracing for departures after it pays bonuses in April, the executives said, asking not to be named discussing private information.
Few doubt that Ant’s prospects have worsened dramatically since China began tightening regulations on the fintech sector, but the opacity surrounding the new rules has made it difficult to put a number on the damage. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Francis Chan, for instance, has lowered his estimate for Ant’s valuation three times since the IPO was scuttled.
But now employees of Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co. are stuck holding shares so difficult to value that even the company itself is struggling to determine a fair price. It has shelved a share buyback program for current and departing staff, in part because of uncertainty over how to value the company, according to Ant executive familiar with the matter.
The move underscores two intertwined challenges facing Ant, four months after Chinese authorities torpedoed its $35 billion initial public offering: The fintech giant’s future is still shrouded in doubt due to an ongoing lack of regulatory clarity, and employee morale is increasingly under threat. Ant is bracing for departures after it pays bonuses in April, the executives said, asking not to be named discussing private information.
Few doubt that Ant’s prospects have worsened dramatically since China began tightening regulations on the fintech sector, but the opacity surrounding the new rules has made it difficult to put a number on the damage. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Francis Chan, for instance, has lowered his estimate for Ant’s valuation three times since the IPO was scuttled.
