Big blow to Jack Ma by Chinese govt

China put the brakes on Ant Group Co.'s $35 billion share sale in Shanghai and Hong Kong, derailing the world's biggest initial public offering.The Shanghai stock exchange will suspend the listing after Ma was called in for "supervisory interviews" by related agencies, it said in a statement Tuesday. There was "significant change" in the regulatory environment and "such major issues could lead to your company not longer complying with requirements on listing or information disclosure," the statement said.

The Hong Kong leg will also be suspended, Ant said in a filing shortly after the Shanghai announcement. The fintech company's debut was expected for Thursday. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which owns about a third of a stake in Ant, fell 8% in premarket U.S. trading. Futures on Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost as much as 1.2%.The shock move comes after China's regulators warned that Jack Ma's firm faces increased scrutiny and will be subject to the same restrictions on capital and leverage as banks. Ma, Ant's billionaire co-founder, was summoned to a rare joint meeting on Monday with the country's central bank and three other top financial regulators.

Ant has faced scrutiny in Chinese state media in recent days after Ma criticized local and global regulators for stifling innovation and not paying sufficient heed to development and opportunities for the young. At a Shanghai conference late last month, he compared the Basel Accords, which set out capital requirements for banks, to a club for the elderly. "It's definitely surprising," said Mike Bailey, director of research at FBB Capital Partners. "If there is something strange going on on the macro side for China's financial markets or in the company that would be worrisome. That would be like for instance if we had some problem with Amazon. I would view that as a meaningful problem for them. This could be something that feeds back into global markets."