Jack Ma lost over $4 billion because of Ant Group.

Jack Ma's stake in Ant Group has plummeted as the payment company's valuation has fallen to just 25% of what it was three years ago.

Calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaire Index—based on estimates from analysts, investment firm Fidelity Investments, and Ant Group's latest share buyback plan—show that Jack Ma's 9.9% stake in Ant is now worth $4.1 billion less than last year. He is the co-founder of the payments company.

Once China's richest man, the 58-year-old billionaire now possesses only about $30 billion – less than half of his peak fortune – before Ant planned its world's largest IPO in 2020. Chinese authorities announced last weekend that they would close their investigation into Ant and fine the company nearly $1 billion.

Jack Ma in an interview with Bloomberg. Photo: Bloomberg

After being ordered by regulators to postpone its IPO, the fintech company had to restructure its business model, withdraw from many sensitive areas, and limit competition with state-owned banks. Ant's valuation fell from $315 billion before the IPO to $78.5 billion, according to the buyback plan proposed by Ant a few days ago.

"Ant will likely have to rebuild its profitability base, as profits in 2022 were only half of those in 2020, despite the investigation nearing its end. We estimate Ant's valuation to be only around $24-60 billion," said Francis Chan, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

In late November 2022, Fidelity lowered Ant's valuation to $63.8 billion. The fintech giant reported a 56% year-on-year decline in profits for the final quarter of 2022.

Jack Ma relinquished control of Ant Group in January. In its 2022 annual report, Alibaba also reaffirmed that Jack Ma's stake in the company would "gradually decrease over time," falling below 8.8%.

For the past few years, Jack Ma has been living in seclusion. He has mostly been abroad, researching agricultural practices. Recently, he has also been teaching at a university in Tokyo. Jack Ma is currently the fifth richest person in China, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Ha Thu (according to Bloomberg)

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/jack-ma-mat-hon-4-ty-usd-vi-ant-group-4628086.html