Alibaba affiliate Ant sells stake in tech news site 36Kr as fintech giant enters final straight of restructuring

Ant Group, the fintech group affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding, has sold its entire stake in a Chinese tech news portal, according to a corporate filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, marking its latest restructuring amid a tougher regulatory environment.

Ant invested in tech news platform 36Kr in 2015 and held a 15.1 per cent stake in the company, 36Kr’s filing shows. On Friday, shares of 36Kr closed at US$0.64, down over 90 per cent since it went public on Nasdaq in November 2019. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The divestment in 36Kr is the latest move in the fintech group’s efforts to streamline its investment portfolio, as part of a major restructuring in the wake of the cancellation of its mega IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai in late 2020 amid regulatory uncertainties.

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Regulatory Commission, said at a press conference in Beijing this month that Ant Group’s “self-inspection” work is almost done and that progress on rectification at Ant has been “smooth”.

Guo said there were still some issues to be resolved, but he did not elaborate.

The last-minute withdrawal of Ant’s IPO and subsequent structural change – including bringing its core businesses under the same regulatory oversight as traditional banking services – is seen as a test case of Beijing’s efforts to rein in what it has called the “irrational expansion” of capital.

Alibaba’s stock price in Hong Kong plunged 10.9 per cent on Monday to HK$80.9 per share, down almost three quarters from a peak hit in October 2020.