On the evening of August 25, the Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted Ant Group’s application for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with CICC and CITIC Construction Investment as joint sponsors. On the same day, Ant Group submitted A1 IPO application documents to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On August 30, the process status of Ant Group’s Science and Technology Innovation Board was changed to “inquired”.
Six working days later, Ant Group responded to the “first question”. According to previous disclosures, the total number of new shares Ant Group plans to issue in A-shares and H-shares will not be less than 10% of the total post-issuance share capital, and the total post-issuance share capital will not be less than 30.03897 billion shares (before green shoes), which means that it will issue No less than 3 billion new shares. A green shoe mechanism can be introduced for this A-share issuance, with over-allotment rights not exceeding 15%.
In its latest reply, Ant Group expressed its determination and confidence in listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Ant Group stated that the company’s A-share issuance and H-share issuance are not mutually exclusive. If the company does not proceed with the H-share issuance as planned for any reason, or if the number of H shares issued by the company in the H-share issuance is reduced, or the actual issuance price of the company's H-shares is not within the estimated price range of the H-share issuance, the A-share issuance may It will still be done.
In response to the above questions, Ant Group disclosed the relevant specific contents involved in the Hangzhou Yunbo Articles of Association and further explained: Jack Ma can actually control matters related to the Hangzhou Yunbo Shareholders’ Meeting and the exercise of Ant Group’s shareholder rights. The voting results, and indirectly control 50.5177% of the company's shares through Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Jun'ao controlled by Hangzhou Yunbo, are the actual controllers of the company. According to the relevant articles of association and agreement, Jing Xiandong, Hu Xiaoming and Jiang Fang were persons acting in concert with Jack Ma on relevant resolutions of the Hangzhou Yunbo Shareholders' Meeting.
In addition, according to the confirmation of Alibaba Group and the provisions of the Articles of Association of Alibaba Group, Alibaba Partnership has the right to nominate a majority of the members of the Alibaba Group Board of Directors to be elected by the shareholders’ meeting, and has the right to directly appoint under limited circumstances Directors so that the directors nominated or appointed by them constitute a majority of the Board of Directors. However, since the director candidates nominated and appointed by Alibaba Partnership to Alibaba Group are determined by the partners of Alibaba Partnership through one person, one vote, Jack Ma does not control Alibaba Group. In other words, Jack Ma controls Ant Group, but not Alibaba Group. Ant Group and Alibaba Group are not controlled by the same actual controller.
Ant Group stated that Hangzhou Alibaba Network Technology Co., Ltd. holds 32.6470% of the company’s shares, less than one-third of the company’s total shares. There are no other arrangements for control of Ant Group and it is not the company. the controlling shareholder. Furthermore, its indirect controlling shareholder Alibaba Group does not control Ant Group either.
In response to questions about "data sharing agreement and data security", Ant Group stated that the company's data platform and data storage are deployed independently. The company and Alibaba Group each have independent computing capabilities, and the data collected by each party is stored independently, and there is no single mixed data pool.
Ant Group also disclosed in detail the technical areas and directions in which it plans to focus on research and development, including artificial intelligence, risk management, security, blockchain, computing and technical infrastructure, etc. According to the latest data disclosed in the supplement, as of July 31, 2020, Ant Group has patents or patent applications in 40 countries or regions around the world, totaling 26,279, of which 6,382 have been authorized, of which 40.17% are located in China. . The company has ranked first in the world in patent applications in the blockchain field for four consecutive years, with a total of 212 patent authorizations, ranking first in the world. As of June 30, 2020, the company's technical personnel accounted for 64%, covering all business lines.