Alibaba Affiliate Ant Group Accelerates Restructuring After Winning Fundraise License

Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA fintech affiliate Ant Group promoted 20-year veteran Sophie Wu Minzhi to Chief People Officer, replacing Sam Zeng Songbai, starting from January 1.
Minzhi's career at Alibaba covered several business units, including China Trustpass Sales, China Golden Supplier, ICBU, 1688.com, and Rural Taobao, before joining Ant in August 2021, SCMP reports.
The promotion came after Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance won the permit to raise 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), the first approval since China foiled Ant's $39.67 billion initial public offering in November 2020.
Also Read: Jack Ma's Ant Financial Wants To Become Leading Global Payments Aggregator; Clocks 1B Users
Songbai, born in the 1960s, had been thinking about handing over his role "in recent years," Ant's Chair and CEO Eric Jing said in a note to employees.
"Sam has been with our company since Alipay transformed into Ant Group," Jing wrote.
Separately, Ant updated its marketing guidelines for financial consumer protection on its website, signifying the acceleration of its restructuring after winning regulatory approvals on December 31 to more than double the capital base of its consumer credit unit.
Ant's platforms agreed to refrain from repeating their marketing material on customer rejection. The platforms also vowed to disclose the operating entity, third-party vendors, and contact methods in their marketing campaigns.
Ant can expand the capital base of Chongqing Ant to 18.5 billion yuan from the current 8 billion yuan.
Ant Group will continue to control half the equity stake after the fundraising. A unit under the local authorities of Alibaba's home province, Hangzhou, will own 10% as the second-biggest shareholder.
Recently, China's top leadership renewed its pledge to support its platform economies and encourage their role in economic growth and job creation after a two-year crackdown on the platform economy.
Price Action: BABA shares closed higher by 13.1% at $104.01 on Wednesday.

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