But that bullish outlook did not extend to China’s behemoths in the tech sector, and, as we had warned, last night regulators launched an anti-monopoly investigation into tech giant Alibaba and summoned its fintech Ant affiliate in for regulatory review (see SGH 11/13/2020; “ China: Breaking the Internet Monopolies”).
** At that CEWC meeting, Premier Li Keqiang also added context to Beijing’s efforts to rein in these monoliths, saying, “Financial innovation must be carried out under the premise of ample prudent administration. If a single digital financial technology (fintech) platform takes up too large of a market share, it may eventually lead to a large number of bad loans. We have to avoid allowing financial platforms from becoming too-big-to-fail and prevent the monopoly of a winner take all in the market.”
** A senior policymaker added the following comments – including his own views -- on background. “It is time to strengthen anti-trust regulations in the financial technology sector. Based on what we know so far, the problems of large financial platforms are more serious than we had previously known. Finance is the lifeblood of our country. We need to stop fintech giants, such as Alibaba, Tencent, JD and Meituan, which were already fighting off rivals that were taking their market share, [from gaining monopoly position]. Frankly, [I do not believe regulators] will allow Ant Group and similar companies to IPO in 2021.”
Alibaba Antitrust Fears Drive $200 Billion Chinese Tech Selloff
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. led a second day
of frenetic selling among China’s largest tech firms, driven by
fears that antitrust scrutiny will spread beyond Jack Ma’s
internet empire and engulf the country’s most powerful
corporations.
Alibaba and its three largest rivals -- Tencent Holdings
Ltd., food delivery giant Meituan and JD.com Inc. -- have shed
nearly $200 billion over two sessions since Thursday, when
regulators revealed an investigation into alleged monopolistic
practices at Ma’s signature company. That marked the formal
start of the Communist Party’s crackdown on not just Alibaba but
also, potentially, the wider and increasingly influential tech
sphere.
Policy Validation
(Bloomberg 12/27/20)
China Orders Ant to Return to Its Roots in Payments Services (3)
Chinese regulators ordered Jack Ma’s online
financial titan Ant Group Co. to return to its roots as a
provider of payments services, threatening to throttle growth in
its most lucrative businesses of consumer loans and wealth
management.
The central bank summoned Ant executives over the weekend
and told them to “rectify” the company’s lending, insurance and
wealth management services, the People’s Bank of China said in a
statement Sunday. While it stopped short of directly asking for
a breakup of the company, the central bank stressed that Ant
needed to “understand the necessity of overhauling its business”
and come up with a timetable as soon as possible.