Jack Ma's return?"Surpassing SoftBank to become Alibaba's largest shareholder"

Author | Cat brother

Source | Big Cat True Detective Agency

Alibaba ushered in another big gain.

In the U.S. stocks, Alibaba rose by 7.85%, while in the Hong Kong stock market, Ali rose by 7.32%, although Ali's market value is still not far from the beginning of the year, but it is not easy to finally usher in a big rise.

Why is it rising?

On Tuesday, documents showed that Tsai Chongxin, the co-founder and chairman of Alibaba, bought about $151 million in Alibaba shares in the fourth quarter through its family-owned investment vehicle, Blue Pool Management.

At the same time, some sources said that in addition to Tsai Chongxin, Ma Yun also bought about $50 million in Hong Kong stocks.

In the fourth quarter, didn't the two founders submit a form for reducing their holdings in the United States?

The Form144 disclosed at that time showed that the overseas entity under the Ma Yun family was ready to sell 10 million shares of restricted trading shares, of course, because of the news of Ma Yun's reduction, Ali also fell a lot.

Did Jack Ma cash out or not?

Ali also explained to Ali through the intranet that Ma Yun did have a large investment before, so there was a need to cash out, and Ma Yun did sign a contract to reduce his holdings, but he set a target price for the reduction, and he would not sell it if he did not reach the target price.

Ali said that Ma Yun is firmly optimistic about Alibaba, "Ali's shares are currently much lower than the actual value of Alibaba, and he will not sell them."

The information about Ma Yun's increase in holdings comes from Alibaba's wholly-owned "South China Morning Post", and Tsai Chongxin, one of the protagonists of the increase, is the chairman of the South China Morning Post, which can be regarded as Ali's internal information.

In the fourth quarter, Ali did fall quite hard.

From September to December, Alibaba's U.S. stock price fell from $94.03 to $77.51, a drop of 17.6%, compared with the peak of $318.34, which is only about 24%.

It is indeed a good opportunity to increase holdings, and I am afraid that any founder will think that his stock is undervalued in the falling range.

How much did Jack Ma buy?

The news says that it is more than 50 million US dollars, and as for the cost and number of shares, there is no exact information, but according to the South China Morning Post, after Ma Yun increased his holdings, he exceeded the 4.3% announced in the 2021 annual report and will become the single major shareholder of Alibaba.

It is emphasized again, surpassing Son's SoftBank.

Since the listing of Alibaba, SoftBank has been gradually reducing its holdings in Alibaba, starting from 25.2% and gradually reducing its holdings to the end of 2022, leaving only 7%, and by March 2023, it has dropped to 2%.

The subsequent reduction does not need to be disclosed, and according to Morgan Stanley's calculations, by May 2023, SoftBank's stake will be reduced to 0.5%.

With the withdrawal of SoftBank, Alibaba has gradually gotten rid of the label of "Japan" or "Jingri", and although Ma Yun has become the largest shareholder and still has a huge influence on Alibaba, he is still not the actual controller of Alibaba.

After all, not long ago, Jack Ma also gave up the identity of the actual controller of Ant Group through a change in shareholder structure.

The founders increased their holdings, which gave investors confidence, so it went up.

But whether Ali is underestimated or not, the future depends on Ali's own "true value".

As Alibaba's business expanded, Alibaba's competitors became more and more numerous.

In the field of e-commerce, Ali has changed from an industry leader to a follower, such as the recently launched refund-only, while in the consumer field, Ma Yun has once again become a brick-and-mortar store, and Hema and Sam are also fighting a simple business war and engaging in "moving mountain prices".

With the cessation of the split of the Cloud Intelligence Group, the suspension of the IPO of Freshippo, and the frequent "collapse" of its products, Alibaba can be said to be suffering from internal and external troubles.

Moreover, Ali's front is also shrinking.

For example, it reduced its holdings in Kuaigou Dache from 11.97% to 5.74%, cashed out US$391 million in Xpeng Motors, reducing its shareholding from 10.2% to 7.5%, and cashed out HK$1.01 billion in SenseTime, reducing its shareholding to 3.15%.

The money from cashing out is probably used to buy back Alibaba's shares.

Of course, with Jack Ma's increased holdings, the market speculates whether Jack Ma will return to Ali again?

After all, Ma Yun is still a bellwether of the times, Ma Yun's attention to Ali, coupled with the current situation that Ali is now a little behind, probably the market will still vote in Ma Yun.

It's just that the current Ma Yun is extremely low-key.

Whether it will return and whether Ali can regain its glory can only depend on the future.