Alibaba’s Co-Founder, Jack Ma Sells $8.2 Billion Worth Shares

On Friday, the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd annual filing released showed that Jack Ma, co-founder of the company, has cut down on his stake. Over the past year, the number has gone down to 4.8% from 6.2%. At its current share price, it cashed out around $8.2 billion.

This comes as Ma retires as the e-commerce company’s executive chairman in September. He has pulled back from his formal business roles to focus more on philanthropy.

While the company did not disclose the average selling price of his divestment, its share price has risen around 40%. This happened since the retired executive reported his 6.2% holding in the company a year ago.

Despite China’s economy taking a severe hit due to lockdown, the company stock’s showcased a stellar performance. An increase in online sales for essentials has helped by forecast-beating earnings growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the same period, Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s Executive Vice Chairman, has also reduced his stake to 1.6% from 2.2% in the company. As of Friday, the offloaded shares were worth $3.3 billion.

Since the time, Daniel Zhang was announced as Ma’s successor as the next chairman of the company, both Ma and Tsai had steadily become less and less involved in Alibaba’s regular operations. Finally, he formally assumed the role in September 2019.

Through their charity arms, the two had donated millions of units of personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout this year to help hospitals worldwide fight the spread of COVID-19.

According to a filing in April 2019 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, within one year, Ma would plan to sell up to 21 million shares to support his philanthropic efforts.

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