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BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – Billionaire Ant Group co-founder Jack Ma skipped a recent recording of an African television show he created, sparking online speculation about his whereabouts and the result of an investigation into his internet empire.
Ma has not been seen in public since Chinese regulators torpedoed Ant’s initial public offering of $ 35 billion (S $ 46.1 billion) in November, then tightened fintech regulations and launched an antitrust investigation against Alibaba. Group Holding, all in a span of days.
The Financial Times reported last Friday (January 1) that runners from the Shark Tank-like Africa’s Business Heroes show replaced him as judge on a November television broadcast and removed his photo from the show’s website around the same time as Mr. .Ma delivered her now-infamous rebuke of the “pawnshop” mentality of government overseers.
The flamboyant Mr. Ma, long a fixture on the international conference circuit, nearly disappeared from public view thereafter.
In early December, the government advised the man most identified with the meteoric rise of China Inc to stay in the country, a person familiar with the matter said. An Alibaba spokesman said Ma was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts and declined to comment specifically on the executive’s whereabouts.
Mr. Ma may have his hands full dealing with increasing scrutiny. The crackdown on its companies has launched a series of regulatory decrees that threaten to reshape the landscape for China’s online operators.
Regulators are now studying plans to force Ant to sell equity investments in some finance companies, curbing the company’s influence in the sector, a person familiar with the matter said.
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