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

Beijing, Aug. 8 (Beijing time)-Ant Group announced in July that it plans to buy back no more than 7.6% of the company's shares worth about 43 billion yuan ($6 billion), providing investors with cash opportunities. However, a number of global investors, including Warbug Pincus and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, opted out of the company's share buyback program after Ant Group's valuation fell by more than 70 per cent, according to people familiar with the matter.

According to people familiar with the matter, Ant Group's major foreign shareholders who did not participate in the stock buyback project also included private equity firms Carlyle Group and GIC. However, several fund managers, including Fidelity Investment and Putonghua Group, have agreed to sell their Ant Group shares.

Ant Group's share buyback values the company at 567.1 billion yuan ($79 billion), down more than 70 per cent from $280 billion before it plans to go public in 2020. For pension funds and private equity firms that participated in the early financing of Ant Group in 2018, participating in Ant Group's share buyback will face significant financial losses. Five years ago, Ant Group was valued at about $150 billion. In November, Fidelity lowered Ant's valuation to $63.8 billion.

However, some Chinese state-owned shareholders plan to join the buyback because Ant Group was reportedly valued at $45 billion or $60 billion when they invested in the first two rounds of financing. In 2015, Ant Group completed round A financing, with investors including China's National Social Security Fund and China Development Finance. The following year, Ant Group completed round B financing, with investors including CIC and CCB International.

Earlier, Alibaba Group has said that it will not sell about 1/3 of its shares in Ant Group. Temasek Holdings, on the other hand, said he was seeking to better understand how Ant Group came up with repurchase valuations.

Ant Group, Warbug Pincus, Carlyle Group, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC, Fidelity Investment and Putonghua Group declined to comment.

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