(Yicai Global) June 10 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s shares tumbled after China’s securities regulator and the e-commerce titan’s internet finance affiliate Ant Group dismissed media reports about a resurrection of Ant’s initial public offering.

Alibaba [NYSE: BABA] closed down 8.1 percent at USD109.90 in New York yesterday. In Hong Kong today, the company’s stock [HKG: 9988] gained 1.4 percent to HKD112.80 (USD14.37).

“The China Securities Regulatory Commission has not conducted evaluation and research work in this regard,” the watchdog said in a statement posted on its website yesterday in response to reports of a revived IPO. “But we support eligible platform companies to list at home and abroad,” it added.

In November 2020, the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchange abruptly postponed Ant's dual stock market listing just two days before the fintech giant’s shares were due to start trading.

The Hangzhou-based company, which owns mobile payments platform Alipay, was set to raise at least CNY221.1 billion (USD33 billion) in the world’s largest-ever IPO, a listing that would also have valued it at CNY2.1 trillion (USD313.6 billion).

In a statement posted on its WeChat account late yesterday, Ant said: “Under the guidance of regulators, we are focused on steadily moving forward with our rectification work and do not have any plan to initiate an IPO.”

When the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced it was pulling the IPO, it said changes in the “financial technology regulatory environment” meant that Ant “may no longer meet the conditions for offering and listing, or the requirements for information disclosure.”

Editor: Futura Costaglione