China puts world’s largest IPO on hold

New Delhi, Nov 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) on Tuesday announced the postponement of Ant Group's listing, the biggest IPO ever in the world at $37 billion.

The CGTN reported the fintech giant announcing later on Tuesday the suspension of its listing in Hong Kong.

Ant Group reported that after joint talks with regulators, some major changes, including changes of regulation in the fintech industry, may result in a failure of meeting IPO standards or information disclosure requirements.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) decided to postpone the listing of Ant, which was scheduled for Thursday, SSE said in the notice.

Ant apologised to the investors in a statement, saying the company "will properly handle the follow-up matters in accordance with applicable regulations of the two stock exchanges".

In the statement, the company reiterated the feedback after Monday's talk with the regulators: The principles of stable innovation, embracing regulation, service to the real economy and win-win cooperation, the CGTN reported.

The company said it will keep close communication with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and relevant regulators, and wait for their further notice with respect to further developments of Ant's offering and listing process and disclose in a timely manner, according to the statement.

The postponement came just one day after China's top financial regulators on Monday conducted a rare joint regulatory talk with Ant's co-founder Jack Ma, Chairman Eric Jing, and Chief Executive Simon Hu.

The world's largest IPO faces regulatory risks since China is tightening the regulations on online lenders, the report said.

Source: IANS