An Ant Group logo is displayed at the company’s headquarters, a subsidiary of Alibaba, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, on October 29, 2020.
Aly Song | Reuters
GUANGZHOU, China – Ant Group will find a “liquidity solution” for employees to monetize stocks after the massive initial public offering (IPO) was withdrawn by regulators, a company chief said.
Eric Jing, executive chairman of the Chinese financial technology company founded by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, has also committed to getting the company on the list.
An employee posted on Ant Group’s internal bulletin board asking about the company’s future and how to retain talent. In response, Jing said the tech giant is looking for a “short-term liquidity solution” for employees to take effect in April, without explaining what that might mean, a person who saw the memo told CNBC.
Ant Group declined to comment when CNBC reached out.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the content of the message.
Many Ant Group employees will hold stock in the company as a form of compensation. Usually, employees can cash in or redeem those shares if the company is acquired, goes public, or management decides to buy back shares.
Ant Group, the owner of the popular Chinese mobile payment app Alipay, was planning a $ 34.5 billion IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong in November, which would have been the biggest of all time. But regulators forced the company to suspend the listing two days before it was due to start trading. Before the cancellation, Ant cited “important issues, such as the changes in financial technology regulation”.