Alibaba has won the green light for the proposed restructuring of its relationship with payments affiliate Ant Financial, more than 18 months after unveiling the deal, and just weeks after chairman Jack Ma bowed out.
The deal will see Alibaba swap its profit-sharing arrangement with Ant Financial for a 33 per cent stake in the group, which was valued at $150bn following a fund-raising in June last year. The restructuring, confirmed on Tuesday, paves the way for the long-awaited stock market listing of Ant.
Maggie Wu, chief financial officer of Alibaba, said following the deal that "we expect to see greater synergy coming from the whole Alibaba economy".