HONG KONG -- Alibaba Group Holding has purchased one-third of Ant Financial, the operator of leading Chinese online payment system Alipay, but it remains uncertain whether the restructuring clears a path for Ant's long-awaited stock listing.
Alibaba receives the 33% stake in return for ending a profit-sharing agreement that required Ant Financial to hand over 37.5% of its pretax profit to the Chinese e-commerce kingpin.
