Chief executive of Jack Ma’s Ant Group steps down
Simon Hu has reportedly resigned as chief executive of Ant Group after just over a year in the role.
Hu resigned for personal reasons according to Bloomberg, and he will be replaced by Ant Group chairman Eric Jing with immediate effect. He joined Alibaba in 2005 before moving to Ant in 2018 as President and took over as chief executive in December 2019.
Ant Group, which made around $2.6bn in net profit last year, is an affiliate company of Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group and is the world’s most valuable unicorn, with a valuation of $150bn according to a 2018 funding round.
Hu’s resignation comes amid an overhaul of the business to appease Chinese regulators.
Just days before its $34bn stock market debut in November Chinese regulators decided there were “major issues” with the listing. The Chinese regulators reportedly summoned Alibaba founder Jack Ma to a meeting in which they were told their lending business was facing tighter government scrutiny.
China’s central bank told the firm to turn itself into a financial holding company which would see Ant subject to capital restrictions. This morning Ant Group flagged a set of financial self-discipline rules in an attempt to stay on the side of the regulators.
In a statement Ant said its consumer loan platform should not issue loans to minors and should prevent small business loans flowing into stock and property markets.