Jack is back – and investors are relieved.
The stock price of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba soared Wednesday after billionaire founder Jack Ma appeared in public for the first time in nearly three months.
Alibaba’s US-listed shares rose 6.8 percent in premarket trading to $ 268.81 from 7:03 a.m. after Ma resurfaced at an online ceremony his charity organized for rural teachers, raising concerns about his long silence was removed.
The English teacher, who turned technical tycoon, spoke from a room decorated with floral arrangements and a large painting in a 50-second video that also included footage of Ma attending a school in Tonglu Province, China last week.
For the short clip, Ma had not been seen in public since he delivered a speech on Oct. 24 denouncing China’s regulatory system. That apparently angered Chinese officials, who the following month stopped the IPO of Ma’s digital payments company, Ant Group.
Ma’s unusual absence earlier this month sparked speculation that he was missing – especially after allegedly not appearing on the latest episode of “Africa’s Business Heroes,” an “Apprentice” style TV show he made.
But Duncan Clark, an investor and advisor in the Chinese tech sector who Ma has known for decades, recently told NPR that Ma had just “been told to hold back.”
Ma, 56, is the fourth richest man in China, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, with total assets of about $ 53 billion. His net worth has fallen about $ 8 billion since the day of his fateful speech in October.
With pole wires