Facing discontent among employees, the leader of the Ant Group Co. said that the Chinese financial technology giant would eventually go public and that the company would look for ways to help workers monetize some of their shares.
In a lengthy post on Ant’s internal website, Chief Executive Eric Jing said the company’s management is reviewing its compensation and incentives policy and working on a “short-term liquidity solution” for employees that would take effect in April. , according to people who saw your message. Mr. Jing was responding to an employee who asked about Ant’s future and how the company plans to retain talent.
The liquidity solution that Ant is working on is likely to be a program to repurchase some of the employees’ shares, according to people close to the company. Typically, April is the month when Ant gives employees discretionary annual bonuses.
Employee morale has been low at Ant since Chinese regulators forced the company to cancel its successful initial public offerings in Hong Kong and Shanghai in early November.
Many of Ant’s more than 16,000 workers had received share-based compensation and were on the verge of reaping an unexpected fortune from Ant’s listing, which valued the company at more than $ 300 billion last fall. This represented a doubling of Ant’s valuation in mid-2018, when its last round of private fundraising valued the company at $ 150 billion.