China gives nod to Ant IPO, firm says it has no plan to go public

China’s central leadership has given a tentative green light to Jack Ma’s Ant Group to revive its initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Ant, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding, aims to file the preliminary prospectus for the offering as soon as next month, said the sources, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The fintech giant, however, still needs to wait for guidance from China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on the specific timing of the prospectus filing, said one of the sources.

A growing chorus of traders are saying that the bottom for China’s technology stocks may finally be here.

In a publicly released statement, Ant said there was no plan to relaunch its IPO, which was hastily shelved at the behest of Beijing in November 2020. At the time, it was slated to be valued at around $315 billion and planned to raise $37 billion, a world record.

“Under the guidance of regulators, we are focused on steadily moving forward with our rectification work and do not have any plan to initiate an IPO,” Ant said.

Neither the CSRC nor China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media queries for central leaders, immediately responded to Reuters’ request for comment.

Chinese authorities pulled the plug on the IPO and cracked down on Ma’s business empire after he gave a speech in Shanghai in October 2020 accusing financial watchdogs of stifling innovation.

The IPO's derailment marked the start of a regulatory crackdown to rein in China's huge homegrown technology sector and the possible revival of a share sale would be a clear sign of a thaw in relations.