It is reported that Alibaba Group founders Jack Ma and Chongxin Cai have significantly increased their holdings in Alibaba stocks. Cai Chongxin's family fund increased its holdings of Alibaba stocks worth $150 million, and Jack Ma also made significant increases during the same period.
In 2023, Alibaba repurchased a total of 897.9 million ordinary shares (equivalent to 112.2 million American depositary shares) at a total price of 9.5 billion US dollars (about 68 billion yuan), making it the largest Internet company in China.
In the eyes of industry insiders, this move is also in response to the recent news that Jack Ma has reduced his holdings in Alibaba.
On November 16, 2023, according to 144 documents disclosed on the official website of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jack Ma's family trust JC Properties Limited and JSP Investment Limited plan to sell the founder's shares of Alibaba on November 21, reducing their holdings of 5 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) respectively. This reduction involves a total stock market value of 870.7 million US dollars.
In response to Jack Ma's family trust's plan to reduce its stake in Alibaba, Jack Ma's office lawyer has replied that the disclosed sale plan is a long-term plan. The plan has not yet experienced any actual reduction in holdings. Jack Ma firmly believes in Alibaba, as its current stock price is far below its actual value, and he will still firmly hold onto Alibaba's stock.
It is worth mentioning that since Alibaba's listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, Jack Ma has made multiple reductions in holdings. According to the financial report, Jack Ma's large-scale reduction in holdings began in 2017. In 2017, Jack Ma's shareholding decreased from 7.8% to 7%, in 2018 to 6.4%, in 2019 to 6.2%, and in 2020 to 4.8%, below the disclosure red line of 5%. Afterwards, Alibaba no longer publicly disclosed Jack Ma's shareholding situation.
Over the past year, Alibaba Group has been in a process of transformation. First, in March, it was announced to launch the "1+6+N" organizational change; In September, Zhang Yong, who had served as CEO for 8 years and Chairman of the Board for 4 years at Alibaba, retired. Cai Chongxin and Wu Yongming respectively served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Alibaba Group; In November, Alibaba Cloud and Hema, seen as pioneers in the split and IPO process, temporarily suspended their IPO.
In December of the following 23 years, about 100 days after taking over as the CEO of Alibaba Group and Alibaba Cloud, Wu Yongming took over from Dai Shan and also served as the CEO of Taotian. Afterwards, Wu Yongming began a bold reform, with six young managers taking over key businesses of Taotian.