Ant’s IPO was set to become the largest IPO of all time. It was set to raise US$34.5 billion at a valuation of US$313 billion. The Shanghai retail offering was oversubscribed by 870 times and the Hong Kong offering 389 times, soaking up over US$3 trillion of funds. Until it was abruptly cancelled just days before the IPO day by the Chinese government. Now investors including BlackRock, GIC, and Silver Lake are left holding illiquid stakes in Ant. The IPO halt came shortly after Ant’s founder Jack Ma gave a speech at the Bund Summit in Shanghai, where he criticized the China’s regulators and state-owned banks for stifling innovation in the industry. ‘We cannot use the way to manage a railway station to manage an airport. We cannot use yesterday’s way to manage the future,’ he declared. The audience included the Vice President of China and the governor of China’s central bank....