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Alibaba's Jack Ma sells shares worth $8.2 billion, interest slips up to 4.8 per cent: filing
(Reuters) Alibaba Group Holding Ltd co-founder Jack Ma has reduced his stake in the company from 6.2 per cent over the past year, cashing out around $8.2 billion at its current share price, the company's annual filing released on Friday showed.
The divestment comes as Ma resigned as the executive chairman of the Chinese e-commerce group in September, and removed from traditional corporate positions to concentrate on philanthropy.
The average sale price of his divestment was not announced by Alibaba. Its share price has risen by around 40 percent since Ma reported a year ago having kept its 6.2 percent stake in the company.
Regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock's impressive success was boosted by forecast-beating earnings growth, even as China's economy is slowing rapidly as more consumers search online for basics.
Joseph Tsai, executive vice president of Alibaba, has lowered his interest in the organization from 2.2% to 1.6% over the same era. The offloaded shares as of Friday amounted to $3.3 billion.
Since Daniel Zhang was announced as Ma 's successor as chairman of the company, both Ma and Tsai have been steadily less involved in regular operations at Alibaba. He officially assumed the position in September 2019.
During this year, the two contributed millions of personal protective equipment (PPE) devices to hospitals nationwide through their private charitable arms to help counter the spread of COVID-19.
A filing April 2019 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reported that within one year Ma will like to sell up to 21 million shares to fund its philanthropic activities.
Source: Reuters; Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Christopher Cushing
