US shelves bid to blacklist China’s Ant Group after phone call by Alibaba president, sources say

Alibaba president Michael Evans urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to reject a proposal to add Ant Group to a trade blacklist in a phone call, sources say

Fears of antagonising Wall Street ahead of Tuesday’s presidential elections, possibility of a lawsuit said to have helped convince Ross to set the plan aside

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Investors had bid a record US$3 trillion for Ant Group shares before China suspended the fintech giant’s stock market listing. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:52am, 4 Nov 2020Updated: 9:52am, 4 Nov 2020

The Trump administration has put on hold an effort to blacklist Ant Group, the Chinese financial technology company affiliated with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, following a phone call between a company executive and a top US government official, four people familiar with the matter said.

(Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.)

Reuters reported last month that the US State Department had submitted a proposal to add Ant Group to a trade blacklist to deter US investors from taking part in its initial public offering, which was expected to rake in a record US$37 billion before being postponed on Tuesday.

But the Commerce Department, which oversees the blacklist, shelved the proposal after Alibaba president Michael Evans urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to reject the bid in a phone call, the people said, declining to be named because they were not authorised to speak on the matter.

Three of the people said fears of antagonising Wall Street ahead of Tuesday’s presidential elections and the possibility of a lawsuit helped convince Ross to set the plan aside.

“It could spur legal action or cause a chill in markets,” one of the sources said.

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