Ant Group Co. headquarters area. in Hangzhou, China, on January 20th.
Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Ant Group Co. can be valued. cut further under new measures proposed by China to prevent market congestion in its online payments market, according to new estimates from Bloomberg Intelligence.
Fintech giant Jack Ma may be worth less than 700 billion Yuan ($ 108 billion) under the draft proposals, which could halve the value of Ant Alipay ‘s service, according to senior analyst Francis Chan. Earlier this month, Chan lowered his Ant valuation to less than 1 trillion yuan, from about 1.44 trillion yuan.
“Ant Group’s valuation could fall further if its payroll unit is broken up due to capacity anti-trust probes by China’s central bank, ”Chan wrote in a research note.
The revised estimate for Ant is far from valuations that ran as high as $ 320 billion before the company was forced to cancel its first public offering in November. China’s crackdown on the Ma company prompted the withdrawal of the $ 35 billion IPO just days before its prospective listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
China’s central bank said Wednesday that any non-bank payment company with half the market share for online transactions, or two entities with a combined share of two-thirds could be subject to anti-trust probes.
If a monopoly is confirmed, the central bank may recommend to the cabinet the imposition of restrictive measures including the bankruptcy of the entity according to the type of business. Companies that already have payment licenses would have a one-year grace period to comply with the new rules, the central bank said.
Alipay, with around 1 billion users, controls 55% of the mobile payments market. Breaking up could halve its 600 billion Yuan valuation, Chan said, adding that it is doubtful whether Ant can launch its IPO this year.
An Duopoly
Ant, Tencent takes control of the mobile payments market in China
Source: iResearch data from June. 30
Ant-interested Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. fell for a second day in Hong Kong, falling 2.9% at 9:57 am 8.8% shares jumped Wednesday after Ma appeared publicly for for the first time since China began clamping down on its industries, ending several months of speculation on where it is.
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– Supported by David Scanlan, Lulu Yilun Chen, and Jun Luo