China Blocked Jack Ma’s Ant IPO After Investigation Revealed Likely Beneficiaries

The Chinese government appears to have blocked Ant’s IPO due to concerns about who was poised to profit from it. A previously unpublished report indicates that high-powered individuals posing a political challenge to President Xi Jinping were set to pocket billions from the offering.
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The report also showed that Ant’s ownership structure was highly complicated by opaque investment vehicles used to obscure the identities of its investors.
The new narrative contradicts earlier reports that Beijing was upset about Ant founder Jack Ma’s critical stance against its campaign to increase financial oversight.
The investigation into the ownership structure began prior to Jack Ma’s infamous speech, in which he compared the risk-averse mentality of Chinese banks to that of pawnshops, and which previously served as the justification for scuppering Ant’s IPO.
Even Jack Ma’s stake in Ant is mediated by at least two investment vehicles, Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao (see graph figure for an example).