Suddenly, there was a big signal from Alibaba.
On the evening of January 23, Beijing time, a 13F document on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed that in the fourth quarter of 2023, Blue Pool, the Tsai Chongxin family fund, increased its holdings of Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares worth about $151.7 million. Jack Ma also bought $50 million worth of Alibaba Hong Kong shares in the fourth quarter of 2023.
After this increase, Jack Ma's shareholding in Alibaba has risen to more than 4.3%, and by this calculation, Jack Ma has replaced SoftBank Group as the largest single shareholder of Alibaba. Alibaba's current chairman, Joe Tsai, has become the second largest shareholder after Jack Ma.
As Jack Ma increases his holdings and becomes the largest shareholder, the current market is speculating whether Jack Ma will return to Ali again and take the helm of this "e-commerce aircraft carrier"?
Jack Ma suddenly made a move
On the evening of January 23, Beijing time, a 13F document on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed that in the fourth quarter of 2023, Blue Pool, the Tsai Chongxin family fund, increased its holdings of Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares worth about $151.7 million.
In addition, Jack Ma also bought $50 million worth of Alibaba Hong Kong shares in the fourth quarter of 2023. According to media reports, Mr. Ma has been buying shares in Alibaba in recent months, as has Mr. Tsai.
After this increase, Jack Ma's shareholding in Alibaba has risen to more than 4.3, and based on this calculation, Jack Ma has become the largest single shareholder of Alibaba.
In addition, Tsai Chongxin, the current chairman of Alibaba, has also become the second largest shareholder after Jack Ma by increasing his holdings.
Prior to this, SoftBank Group, Alibaba's former major shareholder, was a large reduction in Alibaba shares.
In the past two years, Son's SoftBank Group has cut most of its stake in Alibaba through forward contracts, from about 7% in December 2022 to about 2% in March 2023 and further to less than 0.5% in May, according to Morgan Stanley's calculations.
At present, Jack Ma has replaced SoftBank Group as Alibaba's largest shareholder.
Some analysts pointed out that because the capital demand of the Vision Fund is too huge, SoftBank Group continues to reduce its holdings of the most profitable Alibaba stock to make up for the huge investment of the Vision Fund.
Stimulated by the news of Jack Ma and Tsai Chongxin's increased holdings, Alibaba's stock price soared.
At the close of the U.S. stock market overnight on January 23, Alibaba's share price rose 7.85%, and the latest U.S. stock market value rose to $188.5 billion.
On January 24, the Hong Kong stock market opened, Alibaba's Hong Kong stock price continued to strengthen, as of the close, Alibaba's Hong Kong stock closed at HK$72.55, an increase of 7.32%, and the total market value of Hong Kong stocks rose to HK$1,479.2 billion.
In the eyes of industry insiders, after Ali's share price continued to pull back, Ma Yun and Tsai Chongxin both increased their holdings vigorously, which undoubtedly released a major positive signal. This move reflects the founders' confidence in Alibaba's future development, management team and strategic direction.
Because, before that, it was reported that the overseas entity under the Ma Yun family was ready to sell 10 million shares of Alibaba shares that were restricted from trading. This news once caused Ali's stock price to plummet.
Between September and December 2023, Alibaba's U.S. stock price fell all the way from $94.03 to $77.51, a cumulative decline of 17.6%, and a cumulative maximum decline of more than 75% compared with the peak of $318.34.
A signal of Jack Ma's return?
Although Jack Ma surpassed SoftBank to become the largest shareholder of Alibaba and has a huge influence on Alibaba, Jack Ma is still not the actual controller of Alibaba.
Not long ago, the official website of the central bank issued an information announcement, agreeing to change Alipay (China) Network Technology Co., Ltd. to no actual controller.
This means that after more than a year of adjustment of the governance structure of Ant Group, it has come to an end, and Ma Yun has officially given up the status of Alipay's actual controller.
With Jack Ma increasing his holdings and becoming the largest shareholder, the current market is speculating whether Jack Ma will return to Ali again and take the helm of this e-commerce giant?
It should be pointed out that the news that Ma Yun increased his holdings and became the largest shareholder of Alibaba came from the "South China Morning Post", which is wholly owned by Alibaba, and Tsai Chongxin, one of the protagonists of the increase, is the chairman of the South China Morning Post.
It can be seen that this news may be an important signal released by Ali's official.
In addition, judging from Alibaba's current situation, Ma Yun also has the motivation to return.
On November 29, 2023, Pinduoduo's market value once surpassed Alibaba, becoming the most valuable Chinese e-commerce company.
This news even sparked heated discussions on Ali's intranet. Ali employees posted on the company's intranet, "I can't sleep at the moment, and I don't dare to think that the market value of Pinduoduo has come directly to 185.5 billion US dollars, compared with our 194.3 billion, the gap is only 8 billion, which is really shocking." That inconspicuous slash is about to become a big brother. ”
In this regard, Ma Yun rarely responded on the intranet: "Please put forward more constructive opinions and suggestions." Especially innovative ideas. I believe that everyone is watching and listening to the Ali people today. I firmly believe that Ali will change, and Ali will change. ”
The year 2023 that has just passed for Alibaba may be the most turbulent year in the company's history.
In March of that year, Daniel Zhang, then chairman of the board of directors and CEO, suddenly announced that the company would be split into 1 group company, 6 business subsidiaries and N innovation projects according to the "1+6+N" structure;
In June of that year, Daniel Zhang, who had just announced major changes, decided to step down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group in September, and only served as the chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, which is one-half of the "6" in the "1+6+N" architecture.
On September 10, Daniel Zhang officially handed over power to the new chairman Tsai Chongxin and CEO Wu Yongming. At the same time, he also stepped down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group. At this point, Daniel Zhang left Alibaba completely. Prior to that, he served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors for 8 years and 4 years respectively.
In November, when Alibaba announced its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 (corresponding to the third quarter of 2023), the group's new CEO Wu Yongming announced that it would suspend the split of the cloud intelligence group and "increase investment".
In December, about 100 days after taking over as CEO of Alibaba Group and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, Wu Yongming succeeded Dai Shan and concurrently served as CEO of Taotian. After that, Wu Yongming began to carry out drastic reforms, and six young managers took over the key businesses of Taotian.
In fact, the current Chinese e-commerce landscape is undergoing tremendous changes, in addition to the rise of Pinduoduo, the momentum of platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu is also particularly fierce.
Among them, Douyin relies on its huge traffic advantage and relies on live broadcast to bring goods, and the explosive momentum of e-commerce business is very strong, and the GMV growth rate far exceeds the industry average.
On January 15, Douyin e-commerce released its 2023 annual inventory, which disclosed that "the GMV of the platform has increased by more than 80% in the past year".
At the beginning of 2022, according to the Silicon Valley information platform The Information, the GMV of Douyin e-commerce reached 1.41 trillion yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 76%. Douyin responded that "the news is not true".
If it is estimated at an increase of 80%, the GMV of Douyin e-commerce may reach 2.7 trillion yuan in 2023.