Ant Group Shanghai listing suspended two days before US$34.4bn IPO

The Shangai listing of Ant Group has been suspended two days before its IPO was due. Mobile payment specialist Ant, which is run by Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) founder Jack Ma, was expected to make a market debut in Shanghai and Hong Kong worth US$34.4bn. READ: As Ant Group IPO nears, investors get a look under the hood while Alibaba gets an early bump Ma’s shares were estimated to be worth US$17bn. The Shanghai stock exchange said there were “major issues” following “changes in the financial technology regulatory environment”, the BBC reported, so Ant could not meet “listing conditions or information disclosure requirements”. The Hong Kong exchange then announced Ant decided not to go ahead with the listing. Ant was set to sell about 11% of shares, valuing the wider company at US$313bn. The IPO would have been the world’s biggest, even higher than the US$29.4bn taken out of the market by Saudi Aramco a year ago. Shares in Alibaba dropped 7% to US$288.37 after the market opened.