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Tag: ants

  • Chinese State Firms to Take Stakes in Ant’s Credit Scoring JV

    Chinese State Firms to Take Stakes in Ant’s Credit Scoring JV

    Plans are reportedly underway for Ant to establish a personal credit scoring joint venture with state-backed companies set to take major stakes in the new firm.

    The ownership plans include Ant and Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group Co Ltd each owning 35 percent in the credit scoring joint venture, according to a Reuters report citing unnamed sources.

    Other state-backed parents include Hangzhou Finance and Investment Group and Zhejiang Electronic Port, with each expected to hold slightly more than 5 percent

    Transfar Group, parent of logistics and financial services firm Transfar Zhilian Co Ltd, will be the only non-state investor with a total stake of 7 percent.

    The proposed credit scoring joint venture will collect, manage and analyze consumer data to score people’s credit.

    Shareholders will invest about 500 million yuan ($77.4 million) in the entity as registered capital.

    The plan is for the firm to be launched as soon as October.

    According to the report, the establishment of the new firm and its ownership structure are part of restructuring orders by regulators who halted Ant’s blockbuster IPO in November last year.

    The credit scoring joint venture will consolidate Ant’s main business data operations and make regulatory oversight easier.

    The joint venture’s establishment will mark the third licensed personal credit-scoring firm alongside Baihang Credit Scoring and Pudao Credit Rating Co Ltd.

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  • HKMA Lauds Ant’s Role Despite IPO Pullout

    HKMA Lauds Ant’s Role Despite IPO Pullout

    Despite a halted dual listing, Ant Group will continue to play an important financial role in Hong Kong, according to officials from the city’s central bank.

    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) expressed continued confidence in the city’s fintech industry and specifically named Ant as a firm that would remain important in the market.

    According to Nelson Chow, HKMA’s chief fintech officer, the was no reason to question Ant’s presence in Hong Kong despite the sudden pullout from an IPO.

    This is one player, but many players are in town as well, so they are competing against each other to offer better services, said Chow, according to a report.

    On the eight newly launched virtual banks which includes one operated by Ant, Chow described progress as «good», highlighting strong business models for funding small and medium-sized businesses through the use of alternative data.

    The HKMA will need some time to observe the existing players, Chow said when asked about the possibility of issuing more virtual bank licenses.

    On Hong Kong’s capital markets, Chow stressed that he believed that Ant’s IPO pullout would have no material effect on investor appetite.

    The tone is very upbeat, he said. Investors see Asia and particularly Hong Kong as one of the major places where we’ll see a lot of fintech development.

    And on mainland China’s digital yuan, Chow said that the HKMA would welcome any decision from Beijing, adding that it would «stand ready to cooperate.