HONG KONG (Reuters) – The Shanghai stock exchange has suspended Ant Group’s A-share IPO on its STAR Market, which was initially set for Thursday, the Chinese exchange said on Tuesday.
Ant Group has recently reported to China’s securities regulator about the significant changes in the regulatory environment, the exchange said, and this major development might make Ant Group fall short of listing requirements on information disclosure, the Shanghai stock exchange said in a statement.
Ant was set to go public in Hong Kong and Shanghai on Thursday after raising about $37 billion, including the greenshoe option of the domestic leg, in a record public sale of shares.
The Hong Kong stock exchange declined to comment on the Shanghai stock exchange’s suspension on the Hong Kong leg of the Ant IPO. Ant did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China’s top financial regulators summoned Ant Group Co Ltd’s founder Jack Ma and two top executives to a meeting on Monday during which they told the that the company’s lucrative online lending business faces tighter government scrutiny, sources told Reuters.
(Reporting by Meg Shen and Julie Zhu; Editing by Louise Heavens)
