FILE PHOTO – Jack Ma, founder and CEO of China’s Alibaba Group, speaks in front of an image of SoftBank’s human robot called ‘pepper’ during a press conference in Chiba, Japan, June 18, 2015. REUTERS / Yuya Shino / Stock Image
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Alibaba Group Holding Ltd co-founder Jack Ma reduced his stake in the company last year to 4.2% from 6.2%, charging around $ 8.2 billion in price current stock, the company’s annual presentation released on Friday. He showed.
The divestment comes when Ma retired as chief executive of the Chinese e-commerce company in September and retired his formal business duties to focus on philanthropy.
Alibaba did not disclose the average sale price of its divestment. Its share price has increased about 40% since Ma reported its 6.2% stake in the company a year ago.
The stock’s stellar performance has been buoyed by earnings growth that exceeds the forecast, even as China’s economy slows sharply as more people buy the essentials online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alibaba executive vice president Joseph Tsai also reduced his stake in the company during the same period, from 1.6% to 1.6%. The downloaded shares were worth $ 3.3 billion as of Friday.
Both Ma and Tsai have been consistently less involved in Alibaba’s regular operations since Daniel Zhang was announced as Ma’s successor as company president. He formally assumed that role in September 2019.
Throughout this year, the two have donated millions of units of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) through their individual charity arms to hospitals around the world to help combat the spread of COVID-19.
An April 2019 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission stated that Ma would plan to sell up to 21 million shares within a year to support her philanthropic efforts.
(This story corrects the sale of Jack Ma shares to $ 8.2 billion, his original stake to 6.2%, the sale of Tsai to $ 3.3 billion and his original stake to 2.2%.)
Reports from Josh Horwitz; Miyoung Kim and Christopher Cushing Edition
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