By Chathushka Perera
Beijing, China (CWBN)_ Since China’s market regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation, began anti-trust proceedings against Alibaba Group Holdings on Thursday (24th Dec), over allegations of maintaining a monopoly, the companies have been dealing with a rough spell.
Moreover, the People’s Bank of China has also noted that the country’s four financial regulators have required Ant Group, an Alibaba subsidiary, to report to a meeting in order to implement the state’s financial supervision and regulation.
The increasing scrutiny follow last month’s suspension of Ant Group’s initial public offering In the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, which would have been the largest recorded worldwide, following a closed door meeting between the companies’ founder and major shareholder, Jack Ma.
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange reported that Alibaba’s stocks fell by around 8 percent immediately after the announcements, and has since dropped by 26 percent from its peak value recorded in October, this year. The loss incurred is valued at USD 240 billion.
Alibaba is among a list of tech companies including Tecent, Pinduoduo, JD.com, Meituan, and Didi Chuxing that have been facing the brunt of China’s hammering of anti-monopoly regulations. Experts claim that Chinese government’s decision to rein them in was a matter of preventing the tech empires from growing too quickly, while recklessly leaning on their influence.
Ant Group responded to the developments claiming that it would “seriously study and strictly comply with all regulatory requirements.”
