By 
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. fell in Hong Kong morning trading, extending a selloff overnight on Wall Street after its fintech arm Ant Group Co. denied reports about a revival of its initial public offering plans.
The Chinese e-commerce giant’s Hong Kong-traded shares
9988,
+0.27%
lost as much as 3.9% before paring losses to trade 2.1% lower at 109.00 Hong Kong dollars (US$13.89) on Friday. The company’s U.S.-listed stock
BABA,
-8.13%
slumped 8.1% on Thursday.
The declines came after Ant Group, an Alibaba affiliate whose blockbuster IPO was abruptly blocked by Beijing authorities in late 2020, said late Thursday that it doesn’t “have any plan to initiate an IPO.”
The statement followed reports by Bloomberg and Reuters that Chinese authorities have started talks to potentially restart Ant’s share-sale plans and that the country’s central leadership has given the deal a tentative green light. Reuters also said that Ant aims to file the preliminary prospectus for the offering as soon as next month.
Shortly before Ant’s statement, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said it isn’t conducting any assessment or research work on matters related to Ant’s IPO.
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