Ant Group CEO Simon Hu resigns amid regulatory-driven revamp

[BEIJING] China's Ant group chief executive officer Simon Hu has stepped down from his role, the company said on Friday, as the fintech giant is being pushed by regulators to revamp operations after its failed US$37 billion initial public offering (IPO).

Mr Hu, who was named the chief executive of the Alibaba Group Holding in 2019, will be replaced by company veteran and executive chairman Eric Jing, the financial technology giant said.

Mr Jing will continue in his current role as chairman, he said in an internal memo seen by Reuters.

"The Ant Group Board of Directors has accepted Mr Simon Hu's resignation request, due to personal reasons," Ant said in a statement.

Mr Hu, who joined Alibaba Group Holding in 2005 after working at China's second-largest lender China Construction Bank, had built a reputation for rolling out new innovations such as using data analytics to offer collateral-free financing services to small businesses and helping Alibaba beat Amazon.com to build Asia's largest cloud business.

He moved from Alibaba to Ant in November 2018 as President, and took over as CEO in December 2019.

Ant has been at the centre of a regulatory crackdown as China taking aim at the push of technology firms into finance.

Its US$35 billion initial public offering was abruptly suspended in November. China's central bank subsequently directed the Hangzhou-based firm to turn itself into a financial holding company, a move that would subject it to capital restrictions, the need for fresh licences and ownership scrutiny.

The overhaul could slash the financial juggernaut's valuation by about 60 per cent from the US$280 billion it was pegged at last year, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Francis Chan has estimated.

The resignation comes days after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged at the National People's Congress to expand oversight of financial technology, stamp out monopolies, and prevent the "unregulated" expansion of capital. All three of the nation's financial watchdogs have made it their primary goal this year to curb the "reckless" push of technology firms into finance.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG