Financial Times: Manus founder Xiao Hong's exit restrictions will be lifted, preparing to return to Singapore

According to the Financial Times, citing two informed sources, regulators are preparing to lift the exit restrictions on Manus founder and CEO Xiao Hong and others. Xiao Hong has informed employees that he plans to return to Singapore soon.

Xiao Hong and Manus co-founder and chief scientist Ji Yichao were asked to remain in the country in March this year. At that time, regulators were investigating whether Meta's acquisition of Manus violated relevant regulations. In April, regulators requested Meta to withdraw the approximately $2 billion acquisition.

Manus has officially confirmed this week that it will resume independent operations. The split plan is also taking shape. Original shareholders such as Tencent, ZhenFund, and HSG will participate in the buyback, and Tencent will also acquire most of Benchmark's shares, becoming the largest single shareholder of Manus, but its shareholding will not exceed 50%. Manus will not be merged into Tencent and will continue to operate independently in Singapore.

The final plan still requires approval from regulators. From the current plan, regulators are requesting the dismantling of Meta's acquisition relationship with Manus, but they have not required Manus to move its business back.