Alibaba's Co-Founders Jack Ma And Joe Tsai Buy Stock Worth $200 Mln

(RTTNews) - Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, co-founders of the embattled Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA), have reportedly acquired shares worth $200 million on the open market.

In the fourth quarter, an entity connected to Tsai's family office, Blue Pool, bought nearly 2 million Alibaba depositary shares valued at $152 million, according to an SEC filing and a New York Times report. Depositary shares represent shares of foreign companies held by U.S. depository banks and are traded on U.S. exchanges.

Meanwhile, Ma purchased $50 million worth of Alibaba's Hong Kong stock during the same period, as per the NYT report.

Following these transactions, Alibaba's U.S. stock closed approximately 7.9% higher in Tuesday's trading, boosting the e-commerce giant's market value to $188.3 billion. This marked a substantial increase of around $13.7 billion from the previous day. Currently, the company's stock is trading at $75.03, up 1.36%.

Meanwhile, on the Hong Kong exchange, Alibaba Group experienced a surge of 7.3% to HK$72.60, the most significant increase since July.

Alibaba's shares faced a considerable setback after Chinese regulators intervened in the $39.7 billion IPO of Ant Group, Alibaba's financial arm, in 2020.

The IPO process was abruptly halted by Chinese authorities on the eve of its launch. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping personally intervened to stop the Ant IPO. Subsequently, on April 12, 2021, it was revealed that under pressure from the Chinese government, Ant Group would be restructured into a financial holding company overseen by the People's Bank of China.