Yuan Leiming, photographed in Shenzhen, China, Oct. 30, 2020
Photograph: Raul Ariano for Bloomberg Markets
Ant Alumni Who Cashed Out Before IPO Flop Have Big Ambitions
Jack Ma’s understudies changed the face of tech in China. The next generation faces a stiffer challenge as the regulatory landscape shifts.
In the seconds after headlines flashed an abrupt halt to what had been billed as the world’s biggest initial public offering, a chat shared by a group of Chinese friends exploded in disbelief. China had just delivered a public drubbing to billionaire Jack Ma, one of its most-revered entrepreneurs, days before his Ant Group Co. was to be listed.
The friends on WeChat understood well the sweat, tears, and brazen audacity it had taken to build Ant into a financial-services juggernaut in less than two decades: They used to work there, after all. The listing, expected to value Hangzhou-based Ant at $315 billion, would have delivered a long-awaited payday to many current employees just as an earlier IPO had enriched the chat group members. Then regulators slammed on the brakes.