Alibaba Founder Jack Ma reportedly goes missing
Alibaba founder and Chinese tech billionaire Jack Ma has reportedly gone missing. According to a report with The Telegraph, 56-year-old Jack Ma has vanished from the public eye for more than two months now. This follows his conflict with Chinese President Xi Jinping-led Central Communist Party government. Jack Ma was supposed to appear as a judge in the final episode of his own talent shows Africa’s Business Heroes. He, however, did not turn up, and later his pictures too were removed from the official website of the show, the report stated.
Officials had hit back at Jack Ma following an October speech at a business conference. In the speech, Jack Ma complained that China's regulators and state-run banks are hampering opportunities.
Also Read | How Jack Ma spearheaded a world record shattering IPO of Ant
"Today’s financial system is the legacy of the Industrial Age," Ma said in the speech. "We must set up a new one for the next generation and young people. We must reform the current system," he said.
Later at the beginning of November (2020), Jack Ma suffered a major setback as Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges had suspended dual listing of the shares of his world's biggest initial public offer of USD 39.7 billion of the group's subsidiary - the Ant Group, 48 hours before the highly-anticipated trading was due to start.
Also Read | China halts Jack Ma’s world’s largest IPO by suspending his Ant Group's listing
The Shanghai Stock Exchange had surprised market investors with an abrupt announcement, that it will suspend Ant Group's IPO, as regulators and the public debate the balance between financial innovation and risk control.
According to media reports, the Hong Kong exchange followed suit several minutes later.
