Jack Ma will cede control of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, the company announced Saturday, following a Communist Party crackdown on the nation's tech sector that targeted the charismatic billionaire.

One of China's most recognisable entrepreneurs, Ma once exemplified a generation of Chinese technology moguls with his rags-to-riches personal tale and penchant for public showmanship.

But the former English teacher has retreated from public view since Beijing torched Ant's planned initial public offering in Hong Kong in 2020 following his barbed comments about government regulators.

His company said in a statement on Saturday it was adjusting its ownership structure so that "no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group".

Laying out the firm's previous complex structure, the announcement showed Ma indirectly controlled 53.46 percent of Ant's shares and deemed him the company's "control person".

He will hold just 6.2 percent of the voting rights following the adjustment, based on information in the statement.

"The adjustment is being implemented to further enhance the stability of our corporate structure and sustainability of our long-term development," the Ant statement said.

Ten individuals -- including the founder, management and staff -- will "exercise their voting rights independently", it said.

The adjustment will not change the economic interests of any shareholders.

Ant operates Alipay, the world's largest digital payments platform, which boasts hundreds of millions of monthly users in China and beyond.

- Crackdown -

Ant's planned IPO would have been a world-record listing at the time, and its damaging withdrawal came days after Ma launched a stinging public attack on Chinese regulators.

In a speech at a summit in Shanghai, the mercurial tycoon said banks operated with a "pawnshop" mentality and accused financial watchdogs of stifling growth.

A riled Beijing also later hit Alibaba -- the internet titan co-founded by Ma that operates popular Chinese shopping platforms Taobao and Tmall -- with a record $2.75 billion fine for alleged unfair practices.

However, in a sign that the official grip may now be loosening, authorities said last month Ant had won approval to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer finance arm.

An office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in the southwestern city of Chongqing will let the firm raise its registered capital from eight billion yuan to 18.5 billion yuan, according to a notice issued on December 30.

News of the approval sent shares in Alibaba soaring almost nine percent in Hong Kong trading, while other tech firms were also boosted on hopes the sector crackdown could be easing.

Alibaba's latest earnings data in November showed a loss of 20.6 billion yuan for the third quarter. The company did not release full sales figures for its Singles Day shopping bonanza in 2022 for the first time.

The e-commerce festival is seen as an important gauge of Chinese consumer sentiment, and once saw Ma share a stage with major Chinese and Western celebrities, but has become more muted in recent years.

Ma has maintained a lower profile since Ant's failed IPO, punctuated by appearances at charity events and occasional sojourns overseas. He was in Thailand this week, Bloomberg News reported Saturday.

Jack Ma: tycoon who soared on China's tech dreams grounded by regulators
Beijing (AFP) Jan 7, 2023 - Jack Ma, the unconventional billionaire founder of tech giant Alibaba and the totem of China's entrepreneurial brilliance, has stepped out of the limelight since a Communist Party crackdown that chopped back his empire.

The most recognisable face in Asian business, Ma has seen his fortune fall by around half to an estimated $25 billion after authorities pulled what would then have been the world's biggest-ever IPO in 2020.

Chinese regulators torched the planned listing of Ma's Ant Group in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and the following year hit Alibaba with a record $2.75 billion fine for alleged unfair practices.

A reshuffle of Ant's shareholding structure will now see Ma cede control of the fintech giant he founded in 2014.

He will hold just 6.2 percent of the voting rights as the company moves to ensure "no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group", the firm said in a statement Saturday.

It is the latest humbling of China's former poster boy for enterprise, who in recent years has retreated from the public eye he once so relished.

A Communist Party member, Ma's rags-to-riches backstory came to embody a self-confident generation of Chinese entrepreneurs ready to shake up the world.

Charismatic, diminutive and fast-talking, Ma was cash-strapped and working as an English teacher when someone showed him the internet on a 1990s trip to the United States -- and he was hooked.

He toyed with several internet-related projects, before convincing a group of friends to give him $60,000 to start a new business in 1999 in China, then still emerging as an economic giant.

Alibaba was the result, an e-commerce behemoth founded from his bedroom in the eastern city of Hangzhou that started an online shopping revolution and grew into a fintech titan.

The company changed the shopping habits of hundreds of millions of Chinese people and catapulted Ma to international stardom.

"The first time I used the internet, I touched on the keyboard and I find, 'Well, this is something I believe, it is something that is going to change the world and change China'," Ma once told CNN.

In 2014, Alibaba listed in New York in a world-record $25 billion offering.

Ant is still the world's largest digital payments platform, with hundreds of millions of monthly users on its Alipay app.

But any future listing appears a long way off, with fears persisting that its personal finance products reach too deeply into the pockets of ordinary Chinese.

- Crossed the line? -

Ma long enjoyed an image as the benevolent and unconventional billionaire.

Sometimes referred to in China as "Father Ma", he was praised for his self-deprecation -- he recounts being rejected by Harvard "10 times".

He is also known for lighting up company events with song-and-dance appearances as Lady Gaga, Snow White and Michael Jackson.

As his fortune grew, Ma rebranded as a philanthropist, in 2019 retiring from the business to focus on giving.

But he has faced his share of travails over the years in a country where getting rich risks catching the attention of the powerful.

Eyebrows were raised when the state-run People's Daily newspaper revealed that he is a member of the Communist Party -- something Ma has never fully commented on.

He had previously indicated he preferred to keep the state at arm's length, telling the World Economic Forum in 2007: "My philosophy is to be in love with the government, but never marry them."

Days before Ant's IPO was pulled, a swaggering Ma launched a stinging public broadside against Chinese regulators, accusing them of stifling growth.

He is far less outspoken these days, rarely featuring in the headlines save for appearances at charity events and occasional sojourns overseas.

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China's Ant Group gets green light for $1.5 bn fundraising plan
Beijing (AFP) Jan 4, 2023
Chinese authorities have given approval to Jack Ma's Ant Group to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) for its consumer finance arm, in a sign that Beijing may be loosening its grip on the fintech giant. An office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in the southwestern city of Chongqing will let the firm raise its registered capital from eight billion yuan to 18.5 billion yuan, according to a notice issued on December 30. After the deal goes through, Ant - in which ecomme ... read more