The initial public offering of Ant Group, the fintech arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been postponed by the Shanghai Exchange. This would have been the largest IPO in history, but instead, it turned out to be a big failure for the company. The Ant Group officials said that the offering had been suspended because the company “may not meet listing qualifications or disclosure requirements.” The Chinese regulators notified Ant Group of violations and forced the company to halt its trading debut. Notably, this decision came as a surprise to Ant Group, as the recent changes in the financial technology regulation were adopted not so long ago, and new requirements came into force after the company had prepared for the listing. “We will be proactive in supporting Ant Group to adapt to and embrace the evolving regulatory framework,” a spokesperson for Alibaba said. Reportedly, the company plans to return all funds to investors. The dual listing on Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges was expected to start on November 5 and was set to raise $34.4 billion. If successful, the Ant Group’s market capitalization would have amounted to $320 billion and would have surpassed the $29.4 billion IPO raised by oil giant Saudi Aramco last year.
