Ant Group Co. Headquarters Campus from Hangzhou, China, on January 20th.
Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
According to new estimates by Bloomberg Intelligence, the assessment of Ant Group Co. could be further reduced by the new measures proposed by China to reduce market concentration in its online payments market.
According to the draft proposal, Jack Ma’s fintech giant could be worth less than 700 billion yuan ($ 108 billion), which could reduce the value of Ant’s Alipay service, according to chief analyst Francis Chan. Earlier this month, Chan downgraded its Ant valuation to less than 1 trillion yuan from about 1.44 trillion yuan.
“Ant Group’s valuation may fall further if its payment unit is forced to split due to potential antitrust China’s central bank surveys, “Chan wrote in a research note.
The revised estimate for Ant is far from valuations that reached $ 320 billion before the company was forced to drop the record initial public offering in November. China’s crackdown has forced Ma to withdraw its $ 35 billion IPO just days before the planned listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
China’s central bank said on Wednesday that any non-bank payment company with half its market share for online transactions or two entities with a combined two-thirds share could be subject to antitrust surveys.
If a monopoly is confirmed, the central bank may suggest to the firm to impose restrictive measures, including dividing the entity according to its type of business. Companies that already hold payment licenses would have a one-year grace period to comply with the new rules, the central bank said.
Alipay, with about 1 billion users, controls 55% of the mobile payments market. A breakdown could cut the valuation by 600 billion yuan in half, Chan said, adding that it is doubtful whether Ant can relaunch its IPO this year.
duopoly
Ant, Tencent dominates the Chinese mobile payments market
Source: iResearch data from June. 30
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which owns a stake in Ant, fell for the next day in Hong Kong, down 2.9% at 9:57. his business, ending several months of speculation about where he was.
Read more: Why China has changed the rules on Jack Ma’s ant group: QuickTake
– With the assistance of David Scanlan, Lulu Yilun Chen and Jun Luo