Ant shelves sales of debt backed by online loans after crackdown

Hangzhou, China

ANT Group Co has suspended issuance of securities backed by online loans as Jack Ma's financial technology giant overhauls its business to meet stringent new rules for the sector, people familiar with the matter said.

Ant has no immediate plans to issue asset-backed securities (ABS) this year, the people said, asking not to be named since the matter is confidential.

The Shanghai stock exchange said on Tuesday that sales of two ABS totalling 18 billion yuan (S$3.7 billion) by Ant units were terminated, without giving a reason.

The firm is scaling back its business in consumer finance after a clampdown on the sprawling financial technology firm, which also derailed its record initial public offering.

In April, Ant outlined a plan to drastically revamp its business and submit to being supervised more like a bank - a move that will lead to more capital requirement and regulatory scrutiny.

The government last year also issued rules limiting how much online platforms can raise via securitisation.

Authorities have pledged to curb the "reckless push" of technology firms into finance and introduced a slate of measures that threatened to restrict Ant's dominance in everything from online payments to consumer lending and wealth management.

Among the regulations that are expected to hit Ant the most is the rule drafted by the banking regulator in November to impose a 30 per cent funding requirement on online lenders when they jointly issue loans with traditional banks.

Ant's Jiebei and Huabei units had facilitated 1.7 trillion yuan in consumer loans to 500 million people as of June 30.

The company kept only about 2 per cent on its balance sheet with the rest funded by third parties or packaged as securities and sold on.

Ant had more than 170 billion yuan of ABS backed by consumer loans outstanding as of October, according to Huajin Securities Co.

Francis Chan, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, has estimated that Ant may need to inject as much as 80 billion yuan into its two consumer lending units to comply with the new regulations on funding and leverage.

Ant isn't alone in facing the clampdown. The government imposed wide-ranging restrictions on the financial divisions at 13 companies, including Tencent Holdings Ltd and ByteDance Ltd. BLOOMBERG