Beijing forces Ant Group to shelve Shanghai IPO

Chinese financial technology outfit Ant Group was forced to shelve what had been expected to be the world's largest initial public offering ever.

Citing sources, Reuters reported that top company executives had met the day before with the country's financial regulator and were told that Ant's online lending arm would face greater scrutiny going forwards.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange labelled the meeting a "major event", adding that together with a tougher regulatory environment the firm was now disqualified from listing.

Jack Ma, the world's richest man, own Ant Group, and some market commentary described regulators' decision as a public slap down of the billionaire.

A listing at a future data was still a possibility although Ant Group was reportedly unsure whether the Shanghai bourse now required it to fist resolve all issues with the regulators.

One month before, Ma had publicly criticised China's regulatory framework arguing that it was outdated and not fit for purpose for financial technology firms.

Commenting on the news, Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda, told clients: "It would appear that Jack (Icarus) Ma did just that with the Chinese Government and banking regulators last night, as Ant Financials' IPO was pulled in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"China's government appears to disagree with Mr Ma's assertion the Ant Financial is a tech company and not a financial one.

"His comments on the Basle capital regulations clearly didn't resonate in the halls of power in Beijing, and today Mr Ma is less wealthy after Ali Baba stock was pummelled overnight. There's only one big boss in China, and it's not Jack Ma."