Part of the huge shadow Ant Financial casts is its appetite for global investment, but at the same time it’s making moves that are kicking off major changes to how payments are handled in its local market in China.
While the world waits to see how the company’s attempt to acquire U.S.-based MoneyGram will play out, one of Ant’s existing stakes in Yum China — a 2016 spinoff of Yum Brands, which owns Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC — has drawn the attention of an investor who sees the potential to reshape quick serve restaurants, mobile technology and even the middle class in emerging economies.