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Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. raised a proposed share buyback program at $ 4 billion to $ 10 billion, offering further support for stocks hit by a growing antitrust probe into the country’s most powerful internet corporations.
Its shares fell more than 5% in early Hong Kong trading to a six-month low. China e-commerce leader It said Monday it began buying back shares this quarter and its board has authorized an increase in that program, effective for two years until the end of 2022.
Once hailed as the standard bearers of China’s economic and technological ancestry, Alibaba and rivals such as Tencent Holdings Ltd. is now facing increasing pressure from regulators concerned about the speed with which they are accumulating hundreds of millions of users and gaining influence in almost every aspect of daily life. Alibaba shares are down roughly 30% from their 2020 high, hit by deepening Scrutiny and accusations of monopolistic practices in the crown jewel of the empire of billionaire Jack Ma.
Read more: Ant goes from windfall to nightmare for global investors
Beijing launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba last week and sent officials to its Hangzhou headquarters, marking the formal start of the Communist Party’s crackdown on the company that made Ma the best-known businessman in the country. On Sunday, Chinese regulators ordered the other titan online from Ma – Ant Group Co. – to return to its roots as a payment service provider, threatening to accelerate the growth of its most lucrative consumer loan and wealth management businesses.
Ma, the flamboyant co-founder of Alibaba and Ant, has all but disappeared from the public eye since Ant’s initial public offering went off the rails last month. In early December, the government advised the man most identified with the meteoric rise of China Inc. to stay in the country, a person familiar with the matter said.
Mom is not on the brink of a personal downfall, those familiar with the situation have said. His public rebuke is instead a warning that Beijing has lost patience with the enormous power of its tech moguls, increasingly seen as a threat to the political and financial stability that President Xi Jinping values most.
Read more: Jack Ma shuts up after Ant Group’s spectacular destruction
