Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

According to the news on the morning of July 8, on the evening of July 7, the financial management department announced that it had promoted the rectification and reform of the enterprise financial business of the platform from beginning to end, and the focus of work had shifted to normal supervision. Ant Group has also completed rectification and entered a new stage of development.

On the morning of July 8, Ant Group, in order to supplement the employee incentive pool to continue to attract talent, and to further meet shareholders' demand for liquidity, will use its own funds to buy back some of the shares of existing shareholders, accounting for no more than 7.6% of the total share capital. The relevant matters have been approved by the Ant Group's board of directors and submitted to the general meeting of shareholders for consideration.

Ant Group said that this buyback follows the principle of marketization. In order to determine the repurchase price reasonably, Ant Group referred to the market practice, hired well-known investment banks at home and abroad as financial advisers, and priced according to its valuation report.

According to the buyback plan, Ant Group's repurchase price corresponds to a company valuation of about 567.1 billion yuan, down about 40 per cent from the valuation of round C financing (about 960 billion yuan) in 2018. In the current situation of low valuation of domestic Internet companies, this change is in line with market expectations.

The shares repurchased by Ant Group will be transferred to the employee equity incentive pool. Like many Internet companies, Ant launched employee stock ownership plans in the early stages of its startup. Ant said that using the buyback shares to supplement the employee incentive pool will help to better attract talents and enhance the company's ability to use technology to serve finance and the real economy. In the past two years, Ant Group has continued to increase investment in scientific research and seize new opportunities in the intelligent era, with its R & D investment reaching 20.4 billion yuan in 2022.

Another consideration for buybacks is to meet the liquidity needs of shareholders. According to public information, Ant Group continues to provide feasible liquidity schemes to shareholders in an appropriate manner, and has implemented two dividends by the end of 2022. When this buyback is launched, all shareholders can voluntarily choose whether or not to participate within the buyback ratio.

Ant also revealed that based on the company's long-term development commitment and confidence, Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao natural person shareholders have voluntarily given up to participate in the buyback. Prior to the Ant Group's two dividends, Junhan and Junao natural person shareholders also voluntarily promised to retain the corresponding dividends at Junhan and Junao level, in order to enhance their financial strength and capital supplement ability of the company. take practical actions to express confidence in the long-term development of ants.

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