(Yicai Global) May 2 -- Ant Financial Services Group has sold all its shares in embattled online micro-loan provider Qudian.

This development comes after Ant Financial Services, which is  the payment  arm of Hangzhou-based tech titan Alibaba Group Holding, did not renew  its cooperative arrangement with the firm when it lapsed in August.

Reports of the suicides of many college students unable to repay their loans to peer-to-peer lenders prompted Beijing to crack down on the P2P sector,  and this dinted Qudian's operations and chilled its cooperation with the  Alibaba unit.

Ant Financial now holds no shares in Xiamen,  Fujian province-based Qudian [NYSE:QD], information the US Securities  and Exchange Commission released on April 30 shows, state media The  Paper reported that same day.

This is a normal business decision, Ant Financial said, adding that it will continue to cooperate with the firm, per the report.

Ant Financial spent USD54.7 million to take a 12.8 percent stake in the company in August 2015, according to Qudian's prospectus. Ant Financial  also agreed to provide it with a portal on its Alipay platform.

The platform then switched from consumer finance to auto retail and moved  its headquarters from Beijing to the southern Chinese city it now calls  home.

Editor: Ben Armour