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China’s Ant Gives Trapped Investors an Opportunity to Cash Out 中国的蚂蚁给困住的投资者提供了一个套现的机会

Dow Jones Global News - Jul 09, 2023 09:40:00 道琼斯全球新闻 - 2023年7月9日 09:40:00

HONG KONG—China’s Ant Group told its shareholders it will buy back up to $6 billion in stock, offering its international and domestic investors a chance to cash out more than two years after its blockbusterinitial public offerings were scuttled by Beijing. 香港——中国的蚂蚁集团告知股东，将回购高达60亿美元的股票，为其国际和国内投资者提供了一个机会，在其由于北京方面的干预而被迫取消的重磅首次公开募股两年多后，获得现金回报。

The financial-technology giant said on Saturday that it intends to repurchase up to 7.6% of its existing shares at a price that represents a company valuation of around $78.48 billion. 这家金融科技巨头在周六表示，打算以约784.8亿美元的公司估值，回购其现有股份的最高7.6%。

That is a big comedown from Ant’s $150 billion valuation five years ago, when the financial affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding raised $14 billion from a combination of Chinese and international investors and was minted as one of the world’s most valuable unicorns. 这是蚂蚁集团五年前估值1500亿美元的大幅下跌，当时这家$阿里巴巴-SW(09988)$ 集团的金融子公司从中国和国际投资者那里筹集了140亿美元，并成为全球最有价值的独角兽之一。

Foreign investors, including global private-equity firms, sovereign-wealth funds and U.S. mutual-fund managers, had more than $10 billion of that 2018 capital raise and would have collected a windfall had Ant gone public in 2020. The company was on track to raise more than $34 billion in its IPOs in Hong Kong and Shanghai at a valuation of more than $300 billion when the deal was scrapped days before its listing debut. 包括全球私募股权公司、主权财富基金和美国共同基金经理在内的外国投资者在2018年的资本筹集中投入了超过100亿美元，如果蚂蚁集团在2020年上市，他们将获得巨额回报。当这笔交易在蚂蚁集团上市前几天被取消时，该公司本来有望在香港和上海的IPO中筹集超过340亿美元，估值超过3000亿美元。

Instead, international investors ended up trapped and unable to sell their Ant shares, because they had agreed to terms that limited their ability to cash out if Ant didn’t go public, The Wall Street Journal reported previously. They are now sitting on large, unrealized losses on their investments. 据《华尔街日报》先前报道，国际投资者最终陷入困境，无法出售他们的蚂蚁股份，因为他们同意了一些条款，限制了他们在蚂蚁未上市时的兑现能力。现在，他们的投资面临巨大的未实现损失。

Ant’s share repurchase plan comes shortly after China’s financial regulators said they fined the Hangzhou-based company close to $1 billion for numerous violations of laws and regulations. The fine indicates that the owner of the Alipay payments and financial-services platform is close to completing a long-running business overhaul and restructuring to comply fully with the country’s financial regulations. The final step will see Ant becoming a financial-holding company that is regulated similarly to China’s other financial institutions and banks. 蚂蚁集团的股份回购计划是在中国金融监管机构表示对这家总部位于杭州的公司处以近10亿美元的罚款后不久推出的，罚款是因为该公司违反了多项法律和法规。这笔罚款表明，作为支付和金融服务平台支付宝的所有者，蚂蚁集团正接近完成一项长期经营改革和重组，以完全符合中国的金融监管要求。最后一步将使蚂蚁集团成为一家类似于中国其他金融机构和银行受到监管的金融控股公司。

An Ant spokesman said the shares that the company repurchases will be transferred into Ant’s employee-incentive plans. The buyback will provide a liquidity option for investors as well as help Ant attract talent, the spokesman added. Ant said that its major shareholders—which consist of two vehicles that are beneficially owned by billionaire Jack Ma, Ant chief executive Eric Jing, and two other individuals—will not be participating in the buyback, “as a show of commitment and confidence in Ant’s long-term development.” 蚂蚁集团发言人表示，公司回购的股份将转入蚂蚁的员工激励计划。发言人补充说，回购将为投资者提供流动性选择，并帮助蚂蚁吸引人才。蚂蚁表示，其主要股东包括两个由亿万富翁马云、蚂蚁首席执行官井贤栋以及另外两个个人受益拥有的实体所持有的车辆，将不参与回购，以展示对蚂蚁长期发展的承诺和信心。

Ma currently has voting power over a slight majority of Ant’s shares, but will cede his control of Ant, the company said earlier this year. Once the change of controlling person takes place, Ant won’t be allowed to list on China’s domestic stock market for at least two years. 马云目前对蚂蚁集团的股份拥有微弱的多数投票权，但公司今年早些时候表示他将放弃对蚂蚁集团的控制权。一旦控制人变更完成，蚂蚁集团将在至少两年内不得在中国国内股市上市。

Ant’s growth prospects have also been crimped by its overhaul, and the company’s foreign investors have marked down the value of their shares in the company. The $78.48 billion valuation Ant is proposing to buy back its shares is a step-up from the $60 billion valuation implied by Fidelity Investments’ marks on its Ant shares earlier this year. 蚂蚁集团的增长前景也受到了公司改革的限制，该公司的外国投资者已经对其股份的价值进行了调低。蚂蚁集团计划以784.8亿美元的估值回购其股份，这一估值较今年早些时候富达投资公司对其蚂蚁集团股份的估值600亿美元有所提升。

Other foreign investors that took part in Ant’s 2018 capital raise include private-equity funds Carlyle Group, General Atlantic, Warburg Pincus and Silver Lake, asset managers T. Rowe Price Group and Baillie Gifford, Singapore state-investment company Temasek and sovereign-wealth fund GIC, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. 参与蚂蚁集团2018年融资的其他外国投资者包括私募股权基金凯雷集团、通用大西洋、华平投资和银湖资本，资产管理公司T. Rowe Price Group和Baillie Gifford，新加坡国家投资公司淡马锡和主权财富基金GIC，阿布扎比投资局和加拿大养老金计划投资委员会。

The American depositary receipts of Alibaba, which owns a third of Ant, jumped 8% in New York trading on Friday, taking the e-commerce and cloud computing company’s market capitalization to about $230 billion. Alibaba’s shares have lost close to three-quarters of their value since Ant’s IPO was called off in late 2020. 阿里巴巴的美国存托凭证在周五的纽约交易中上涨了8%，使这家电子商务和云计算公司的市值达到约2300亿美元，阿里巴巴拥有蚂蚁集团三分之一的股份。自2020年底蚂蚁集团的IPO被叫停以来，阿里巴巴的股价已经下跌了近四分之三。

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