The Goldman Solution Could Work Out Fine for Jack Ma
Ma may need to give up some of his bigger ambitions, but making Ant a financial holding company could bring absolution and profits.
Is there a financial holding company in Ant’s future?
Photographer: AFP/Getty
Attempting to regain the good graces of Chinese authorities, Jack Ma’s Ant Group is considering becoming a financial holding company that would be regulated like a bank. The move would curb its ambitions to become a future-forward fintech company that’s more than a bank or mobile-payments provider. But would that be bad? In 2008, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other Wall Street heavyweights made a similar transition, from broker-dealers to bank holding companies. Goldman turned out just fine.
Ant is essentially planning to fold all units requiring a financial license into the structure, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. That follows weeks of bad news for the ambitious firm that had become ubiquitous with the future of finance, innovation and digital payments in China, puncturing hopes for what was meant to be a blockbuster initial public offering valued at over $300 billion.