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A sharp drop in shares of Alibaba Group on Thursday came on the heels of news that China is investigating e-commerce giant on issues of antitrust, whose shares have risen.
Softbank Group,
Japan-based holding company that is Alibaba’s largest investor.
Softbank (Ticker: 9984. Japan) has a 24.9% stake
Alibaba
(Baba) is worth about લગભગ 143 billion. That’s 13 5,135 billion more than Softbank’s current market capitalization. Shares of Softbank in the company fell more than 22 billion on Thursday as Alibaba shares fell 13%.
Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, invested મિત્ર 20 million in 2000 in his friend Jack Mani’s brand new e-commerce company, the best venture investment in history.
Softbank is on an aggressive campaign to sell assets in 2020 to raise cash for stock buybacks and debt repayments. During the spring market, Softbank’s stock more than tripled, taking the company’s U.S.-listed stock to a 20-year high. Softbank sold a small portion of its Alibaba shares as part of its asset sales program, but will continue to hold most of its position.
A Softbank spokesperson declined to comment.
Meanwhile, market interpretations on how the situation affects other China-based e-commerce plays are firmly mixed.
JD.com
(JD), a broad-based online online retailer originally focused on consumer electronics, says on its website that it is “China’s largest” online retailer and its largest overall retailer, as well as the country’s largest Internet company by revenue. While you may see the Alibaba probe as good news for JD.com, investors are worried that it may also face close scrutiny. The JD was down 1.1% on Thursday, down to 84.49.
But the market looks sideways
Pindudo
(PDD), China-based ret online retailer. Shares of Pindudu rose 8.9% to 2,152.75.
Shares of Softbank fell 6.6% to 2 25.25 on Thursday.
Write to Eric J. Schwitz Eric.savitz: on barron.com
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