Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA)’s US-listed shares pulled ahead on Tuesday after the New York Times reported that founder Jack Ma and chairman Joe Tsai have been buying up shares in the Chinese ecommerce giant.
According to reports, Tsai purchased $151 million in US-listed Alibaba shares in the last quarter, while Ma snapped up $50 million.
Though a drop in the bucket compared to Alibaba’s $170 billion-plus market capitalisation, investors were encouraged by the name power behind the purchases.
Ma is one of the few high-profile Chinese businessmen to openly criticise the Chinese Communist Party, a fact which has both elevated his international reputation and rocked Alibaba’s foundations, despite him not holding an official post in the group since 2019.
Beijing launched an antitrust probe into Alibaba in 2020 under a broader regulatory clampdown of China’s globetrotting tech giants, with which the CCP has long had a love-hate relationship.
Further pressure was heaped on Alibaba after the US launched a probe into the company’s cloud business, allegedly due to national security concerns.
China also froze Ma out of IPOing his financial services giant Ant Group in 2020, one day before what was set to be the largest stock market debut of all time, at the time.
The BABA ticker was trending 7% higher in afternoon trades, but a $73.5, it remains nearly 80% below its all-time high of more than $300 in October 2020, one month before Ant Group’s scuttled IPO.
Investors may see Alibaba as currently undervalued given its significantly reduced share price.