The CEO of Ant Group, which provoked the war between China and Jack Ma, resigned. Simon Hu will be replaced by Chairman Eric Jing, Reuters reports.
Hu’s resignation is attributed to personal reasons, other details are not provided. He joined the company in 2018, and before that he worked at Alibaba Group Holding.
In November, the Chinese authorities ordered to suspend the IPO (initial public offering) of Ant Group (a subsidiary of Alibaba), allegedly due to the statements of Jack Ma. The billionaire criticized the rules governing the country’s high-tech industry. The reason for the enmity could have been an investigation into the possible beneficiaries of the transaction. Among them were people associated with political clans that are displeasing to the current government. In February, Ant Group and Chinese regulators agreed on a restructuring plan that will turn the company into a financial holding.
After a conflict with the authorities, Ma himself did not appear in public for a long time. It later became clear that he was using a private jet to travel around the country. He was in Beijing and Hainan Island. It is known that Ma played golf on the island, while, apparently, he went to the capital of China to negotiate around the Ant Group.
Also in early March, it was reported that Ant Group employees, dissatisfied with the disruption of the IPO, began to quit. In anticipation of the IPO, Ant Group’s management stopped its employee share buyback program, for many of whom the company’s securities made up a large portion of their earnings. After the failure of the initial public offering, employees turned out to be shareholders, the value of which even the company itself cannot determine.