The People’s Bank of China and three other Chinese regulators said on Monday that they had summoned Jack Ma, the founder of Ant, and two other executives for questions ahead of the company’s $37bn public offering, with shares due to start trading on Thursday.
In a brief statement on Monday, the PBoC, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said they had “conducted regulatory interviews with Ant Group’s actual controller Jack Ma, chairman Eric Jing, and chief executive Simon Hu”.
The regulators provided no further details, but the Chinese word used to describe the interview — yuetan — generally indicates a dressing down by authorities.