Ant Group Denies Backdoor Listing Rumors

Investing.com — Ant Group, co-founded by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, has publicly denied any intentions of pursuing a backdoor listing.

The fintech firm, an affiliate of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), addressed social media speculation about potential public offerings, labeling these rumors as "completely false."

In a statement on Weibo (NASDAQ:WB), Ant Group emphasized that it currently has no plans to enter the public market.

The company cautioned that such rumors are being propagated by various social media accounts to lure individuals into groups promoting stock recommendations, advising market watchers to be wary of these "stock recommendation scams."

Accompanying the Weibo post was an image illustrating posts that suggested a possible public listing via a shell company.

Ant Group, known for its popular digital payment platform Alipay, had its planned IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai halted by Beijing in 2020.

Last year, the firm faced a nearly $1 billion fine from Chinese regulators due to corporate governance issues, investor protections, and violations related to banking and insurance rules.

Despite these hurdles, Ant Group was profitable before its IPO was derailed, reporting $3 billion in profit for the first half of 2020 in previous filings.

Recently, Ant disclosed that Alipay+, its cross-border mobile payment and digital tech solutions, now connects over 90 million merchants across 66 markets with 1.6 billion user accounts.

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