Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma reversed plans to sell some of his shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant after its stock price dropped more than 9% in a single session last week, its biggest selloff in more than a year, Bloomberg reported.
Ma’s intention to sell 10 million Alibaba shares worth about $870 million on November 21 was revealed in regulatory filings last week, on the same day Alibaba reported its financial results for the September quarter and announced its decision not to spin off its cloud computing unit, Cloud Intelligence Group, due to US export restrictions on advanced computing chips.
Ma has not sold a single share in Alibaba, as the stock price has not reached the level he was seeking, according to an internal memo from the company’s chief people officer Jane Jiang.
"Alibaba’s current price is significantly lower than its real value so he will not sell," she said.
Jiang added that Ma’s family office needed funds to invest in agricultural enterprises and charities in China and elsewhere and made arrangements with a broker earlier this year for a share sale at a price set in August.
She also noted that Ma believes the value of Alibaba’s businesses will increase.
NYSE-listed shares of Alibaba have fallen 14% year to date.
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