Chinese regulators are studying plans to force Ant Group Co (螞蟻集團) to divest equity investments in some financial companies, curbing the company’s influence over the sector, a person familiar with the matter said.
The plans, which would involve pushing Ant to sell some of its minority shares in operations such as banking-related businesses, are part of a push by watchdog agencies to regulate so-called financial holding companies, said the person, who requested not to be named.
An Ant spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday.
China is cracking down on Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Internet empire, which includes e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
Ant has been told by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to devise a plan to overhaul its business and come up with a timetable as soon as possible.
It is now said to be planning a holding company to house its wealth management, consumer lending, insurance and payments services, as well as MYbank.
Under such a structure, Ant’s businesses would likely be subject to more capital restrictions and the company might be required to unload some of its wide-ranging investments should regulations tighten further, which potentially curbs its ability to lend more and expand at the pace of the past few years.
Ant’s total minority investments in finance-related operations do not exceed the current regulatory limit of 15 percent of its net assets, another source said.
The company holds shares in state-owned Postal Savings Bank of China Co (中國郵政儲蓄銀行) and a 30 percent stake in online lender MYbank.
Those assets do not need to be sold under the current rules for financial holding companies, although that might change if regulations tighten, the source added.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
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