Chinese online lender Qudian informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that Ant Financial and its subsidiaries are no longer its shareholders.
Qudian raised USD 900 million in its US IPO in 2017.
In its annual report filed on April 15, Qudian had still referred Ant Financial as “one of our principal shareholders“. In this report, Qudian stated that it has engaged a portion of its active borrowers through different channels on the Alipay consumer interface since 2016.
Also in this report, the online lender disclosed that from December 2017 onward, it has encouraged its repeat borrowers to directly engage through its own mobile applications. Qudian added that it continues to promote products and launch campaigns through the public service window on the free-of-charge Alipay consumer interface but that is has ceased to engage Alipay users through its paid channel in August 2018 as the term of this agreement expired that month.
Ant Financial told Chinese news portal 21st Century Business Herald that this offload is based on a normal business decision and that its divestment from Qudian will not affect cooperation between the two.
Contact the writer at jingli@kr-asia.com
