Alibabas Jack Ma sells $8.2 bn worth shares, stake dips to 4.8%: filing

Agency ReporterAlibaba Group Holding Ltd co-founder Jack Ma has cut his stake in the company over the past year to 4.8 per cent from 6.2 per cent, cashing out around 8.2 billion dollars at its current share price, the firms annual filing released on Friday showed.The divestment comes as Jack retired as the Chinese e-commerce companys executive chairman in September and pulled back from formal business roles to focus on philanthropy.Alibaba did not disclose the average selling price of his divestment.Its share price has risen around 40 per cent since jack reported his 6.2 per cent holding in the company a year ago.The stocks stellar performance has been helped by forecast-beating earnings growth, even as Chinas economy sharply slows, as more people shop online for essentials due to the COVID-19 pandemic.READ ALSO:COVID-19: Jack Ma donates 500,000 test kits, gloves to Nigeria, othersAlibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai also reduced his stake in the company over the same period, to 1.6 per cent from 2.2 per cent.The offloaded shares were worth 3.3 billion dollars as of Friday.Both Jack and Joseph have been steadily less involved in Alibabas regular operations since Daniel Zhang was announced as Mas successor as company chairman.He assumed that role formally in September 2019.Throughout this year, the two have donated millions of units of personal protective equipment (PPE) via their individual charity arms to hospitals worldwide to help fight the spread of COVID-19.An April 2019 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stated that Jack would plan to sell up to 21 million shares within one year to support his philanthropic efforts. (Reuters/NAN)
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