Ant to Set Up Board for International Unit in Broad Overhaul
(Bloomberg) -- Ant Group Co. plans to set up independent boards for its international, database and digital technologies operations as it pushes forward the overhaul of its fintech business, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg.
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The affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will set up separate boards for Ant International, OceanBase and Ant Digital Technologies, according to the memo. Cyril Xinyi Han was appointed president of Ant Group, reporting to Eric Jing, the firm’s chairman and chief executive officer, the memo said.
The three units are still part of Ant from a shareholding perspective, according to a person familiar.
Jing will also take on the position of chairman at Ant International, while Yang Peng will become CEO of Ant International. The company didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The moves come after billionaire Jack Ma gave up control of Ant last year. China wrapped up its crackdown on its once high-flying internet sector by slapping more than $1 billion in fines on Ant and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in July.
Ant also proposed to buy back as much as 7.6% of its shares in July at a valuation of about $79 billion, giving investors a chance to reduce exposure to the company. Fidelity and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. agreed to sell some shares. Alibaba will keep its one-third stake in Ant.
The memo added that the three units will introduce employee stock option programs more compatible with their startup status and start the award process in 2024.
Ni Xingjun was named chairman of OceanBase and Ant Digital Technologies. Yang Bing has been appointed CEO of OceanBase. Zhao Wenbiao was appointed CEO of Ant Digital Technologies, while Geoff Jiang will step down as president of Ant Digital.
Ant has been preparing to break off its international business, database management services, and digital technologies operation which includes blockchain operations and mPaas, a one-stop mobile development solution, people familiar with the matter said in July last year.
International Business
To look for growth outside of China, Ant is leveraging the payments network it built for Alipay to service the different local wallets in Asia for cross-border payments.
Initially catering to Chinese tourists traveling outside the country, the company has expanded the service into a backbone for cross-border payments known as Alipay+ that can be used by different wallets. For example, when customers of GCash from the Philippines travel to Korea, they can pay with GCash when they see the Alipay+ logo displayed at merchants.
Alipay+ linked 1.5 billion consumer accounts on more than 25 e-wallets and banking apps for cross-border payments when users travel as of March.
Another budding source of revenue comes from Alipay+ D-store, which allows businesses to build digital stores across platforms including Chope, AlipayHK and Touch’n Go. The company plans to generate income from servicing brands like Burger King that want an online presence in various apps.
Ant’s Singapore digital wholesale bank also started offering loans to small and medium-sized businesses in November 2022.
(Updates with more details from the memo throughout)
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