Alibaba shares have fallen since the company announced it will file for a listing in Hong Kong. (Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba fell sharply on Friday after a report said billionaire Jack Ma plans to divest control of Ant Group. Alibaba (ie: BABA) owns about a third of Fintech powerhouse Ant. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Ant wanted to distance himself from Alibaba, which Ma founded, after a prolonged period of regulatory pressure. The Journal noted how Ma’s reduction in Ant ownership could push back a potential revival of the company’s initial public offering by a year or more. Ma currently controls 50.52% of Ant’s shares. The Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended Ant’s over $34 billion IPO in November 2020. Meanwhile, Alibaba is forecast by analysts to report a decline in quarterly revenue when it reports on Aug. 4. It would be the company’s first negative quarterly revenue growth, according to Bloomberg. Analysts polled by FactSet expected revenue of $30.2 billion for the quarter ended in June, up from $31.8 billion a year earlier. Shares in Alibaba have fallen since Tuesday after the company said it would file for a listing in Hong Kong. The IPO is expected to be completed before the end of 2022. Alibaba will become a dual-main listed company in Hong Kong and New York, where the company’s US custodian shares are traded. Those ADRs closed Tuesday at $101.44. In Friday trading, they fell 7% to $93.50. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed Friday down 6.1 percent. Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
