Chinese fintech giant Ant Group spins off database firm OceanBase, giving Alibaba affiliates a stake

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The change in shareholders means OceanBase is no longer a wholly owned subsidiary under Ant, which started the database operation in 2010. It is an important step in lining up any potential public listing for the start-up.

Ant had already announced in March that it intended to make OceanBase one of three independent business units with their own boards of directors. The other two companies are Ant International and Ant Digital Technologies. The separation was expected to spur growth and innovation.

The companies will each roll out their own employee share option programmes, which will be “more compatible with their start-up status”, Ant said in an internal letter at the time.

OceanBase is an open-source distributed relational database that Ant developed and uses in managing the deluge of data collected through the mobile payment app Alipay and in support of Singles’ Day, China’s largest online shopping extravaganza started by Alibaba, among other use cases.

Tianyancha lists Hangzhou Junhan and Hangzhou Junao – two entities affiliated with Alibaba – as the two biggest shareholders at 25.4 per cent and 19.7 per cent, respectively. The contribution from Junhan was worth 50.9 million yuan (US$7 million) and 39.4 million yuan for Junao, according to the platform.

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma owns 1.1 per cent of Junhan, while Junao counts Alibaba’s current chief executive and his predecessor as shareholders, according to Tianyancha.

The adjustment comes after Ant took several steps to restructure the company following the last-minute cancellation of its US$39.7 billion initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong in November 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny.

In January 2023, Ant Group announced that it would dilute the voting power of Ma, who also founded that company, to make China’s largest fintech firm more “transparent and diversified”. That was deemed a crucial step in putting its highly anticipated IPO back on track.

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