Chinese Fintech Giant Ant Group Appoints New CPO
According to the official website of Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, Sam Zeng, the former Chief People Officer, left his position and has been replaced by Wu Minzhi, the company’s former Deputy CPO. Wu holds an EMBA degree from China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). She was originally a partner of Alibaba and joined Ant Group in August 2021.
Wu had worked at Alibaba for more than 20 years before joining Ant Group, responsible for international operations, B2B, customer service and experience and administration, property development and procurement departments.
Zeng joined Ant Group in February 2012 and served as vice president of human resources and senior vice president of the firm. Prior to joining Ant Group, Zeng served as Vice President of Human Resources at McDonald’s China from January 2010 to November 2011, and Human Resources Director at AB InBev China from December 2003 to December 2009.
Since its listing was suspended in 2020, Ant Group has needed to straighten out its micro-lending business amid tight market oversight. In 2021, the Financial Management Department of China interviewed 14 enterprises, including Ant Group, and determined five main contents of the rectification plan of Ant Group, including correcting unfair competition in the payment industry, breaking the information monopoly, transitioning to a financial holding company, carrying out supervisory requirements, and managing the liquidity risk of key fund products.
At the end of 2021, Ant Group isolated the microcredit services “Huabei” and “Jiebei” respectively, re-established its brand positioning and integrated its compliance business into a licensed consumer finance company. On November 14, last year, three listed companies participated in the capital increase of Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd., a consumer unit of Ant Group, with 10.5 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), signaling progress in the the state overhaul. of the fintech firm. After the capital increase is completed, Ant Group’s stake remains at 50%, making it the largest shareholder.
In the first three quarters of 2022, the consumer unit achieved revenue of 3.2 billion yuan, net profit of 1.1 billion yuan and adjusted net profit of 386 million yuan. At the end of the third quarter last year, the company had assets of 101.9 billion yuan, liabilities of 93.881 billion yuan and net assets of 8.042 billion yuan.
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A report by CITIC Securities pointed out that the consumer unit’s capital expansion means that Chinese authorities allow Ant Group to replenish capital for credit operations after approving the capital expansion of MYbank, an online lender affiliated with Ant in June 2022. From a political perspective, it is expected that the improvement of large financial technology platforms will come to an end.
In addition, on January 3, Ant Group announced the Financial Consumer Protection Marketing Guidelines, which apply to Ant Group and its payment, insurance, consumer finance and digital life subsidiaries.
