Earlier, Ant had planned to boost the consumer unit’s capital to CNY30bn ($853m). Credit: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay.

Ant Group is set to boost the capital of its consumer finance unit to CNY18.5bn ($2.63bn), Reuters reported, citing an exchange filing.

The Chinese financial service major plans to invest CNY5.25bn ($746.4m) in Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance to retain its 50% stake in the unit. 

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According to the filing by Yuyue Medical, a minority shareholder in the consumer finance arm, Hangzhou Jintou Digital Technology Group is among the new investors. 

Backed by the local government of Hangzhou city, where Ant’s headquarter is located, the new entity will invest CNY1.85bn in Ant’s unit for a 10% stake in it.

Other new backers joining the capital raise include Transfar Zhilian, a logistics and financial services firm and Chongqing Rural Credit Investment Group, an entity controlled by the local government of Chongqing city.

The filing also showed that Yuyue Medical, Sunny Optical Technology Group and NetEase’s Boguan Technology will also invest in Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance.

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Earlier, the consumer lender had planned to boost its capital base to CNY30bn ($4.26bn), of which CNY6bn ($853m) was supposed to come from China Cinda Asset Management.

However, Cinda abandoned its investment plans, which would have given the state-owned entity a 20% stake in Ant’s unit, due to pressure from authorities. 

After Cinda backed out, other investors including Yuyue Medical and Sunny Optical postponed their investment. 

The capital infusion is part of Ant Group’s restructuring and could pave way for its listing after the firm’s $37bn IPO was stalled in November 2020. 

The Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance was set up as part of the restructuring process to hold its consumer lending units Huabei and Jiebei.