The Chinese businessman Jack Ma’s family trust will sell 10 million American Depositary Shares, which has put Alibaba Group Holdings (9988. HK) in the spotlight.
Approximately $871 million is how much the shares are worth. These companies, JSP Investment and JC Properties, are planning to sell company shares on November 21.
The corporation has struggled after a massive C-suite restructuring. Earlier this year, the company was thought to be splitting into six sections. These units wanted cash and public listings, according to Reuters—private business regulation reduced in China. Alibaba has canceled cloud spinoffs. The company has also removed its supermarket listing.
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What the Market Did
Although Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, stepped down as CEO in 2019, the company still faces problems. Chairman Joe Tsai has said that the company will start paying bonuses every year. This was meant to make investors happy.
But, to put it mildly, the reaction has been adverse. Regulatory documents made public the sale of shares, which sent shockwaves through the market. Shares listed in the U.S. fell more than 3%, which took $20 billion off of Alibaba’s market value. In Friday’s trade in Hong Kong, the value of shares has continued to fall.
Structure of Alibaba’s Ownership
Alibaba still does not have a majority shareholder. According to Alibaba’s papers from July, SoftBank was the only stakeholder with more than 5% beneficial ownership in the company. Still, Softbank has been getting rid of most of its shares. While competitors spend billions of dollars on new areas like AI, Alibaba doesn’t know what it’s doing.
At this significant time, Ma’s family trust selling 10 million shares doesn’t look good. Eddie Wu is in charge of Alibaba and helped create it. It will be hard for him to lead the company through a rough patch. Alibaba’s quarterly results, which will be out soon, will be closely watched as the company gets through this rough patch.