Shanghai (AFP)

The biggest IPO of all time interrupted in extremis: the Chinese power has put a stop to the ambitions of billionaire Jack Ma in online finance, triggering a stock market rout for Alibaba, the group of which he is the founder .

Ant Group, the world's number one online payment company, was to make a grand entrance on the Shanghai and Hong Kong markets on Thursday with an unprecedented amount for an IPO: $ 34.4 billion, or 27.4 billion dollars. 'euros.

But less than 48 hours before the event awaited by thousands of shareholders, the Chinese regime hissed Tuesday night to stop the game.

In the midst of commercial and technological rivalry with Donald Trump's America, the Ant Group operation was perceived as a snub on Wall Street, used to record IPOs.

- "Unacceptable" -

Ant Group, which has 731 million monthly active users on its Alipay payment platform, has helped revolutionize commerce and payment services in China, with consumers now using their smartphones heavily to pay for their daily purchases.

But the company has also raised concern among financial regulators by foraying into personal and consumer loans, wealth management and insurance.

Officially, the supervisory authorities invoked Ant Group's information obligations on Tuesday, even as online lending regulations have just been tightened.

Clearly, Beijing believes that the new obligations imposed on Ant will weigh on its results, reducing accordingly the jackpot promised to shareholders in the long term.

But the Communist regime may also have wanted to cut the wings of a private group, with ever greater influence.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) "has once again reminded all private entrepreneurs, no matter how rich and famous, that the Tarpeian rock is close to the Capitol," said Sinologist Bill Bishop in his Sinocism newsletter .

"Ant has become too big and too influential a financial institution, which is unacceptable to the CCP," observes researcher Alex Capri of the Hinrich Foundation, an independent body that monitors developments in world trade.

According to him, the regime of President Xi Jinping had already been at the origin of the retirement of Jack Ma, effective in September 2019.

- Apologies to investors -

This time, Jack Ma himself was able to upset the government at the end of October in a speech in Shanghai where he appeared to accuse regulators of not understanding the needs of consumers and of hampering innovation in the online finance sector, the famous "fintech".

As early as Monday, Jack Ma and the two main leaders of Ant had been summoned by the central bank and financial market regulators for an interview unusually reported by the Chinese media.

The powerful public banking sector, which takes a dim view of online lending activity, may have put pressure on regulators to get Ant Group to be subject to the same prudential rules, observes Jackson Wong, a specialist in financial management. 'assets at Amber Hill Capital.

In a statement, Ant apologized to investors and promised repayment of the sums already placed.

The future of the group now depends on its ability to successfully complete its famous IPO or not.

"I think the introduction will still happen, maybe in six months. But the publicity will be more discreet and the share price may be lower than expected," predicts Zhiwu Chen, professor of finance. at the University of Hong Kong.

Not sure that Ant will manage to beat this time the record set last year by the Saudi oil company Aramco, with an IPO at more than 29 billion dollars.

© 2020 AFP