Alibaba to Buy Back Up to $25 Billion of Stock
Outside Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, China, earlier this year.
Photo:
Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News
boosted its share buyback program to $25 billion from $15 billion, in a bid to reassure investors about the company’s prospects after a year in which its stock has fallen by more than half.
The potential buybacks are substantial compared with the Chinese e-commerce giant’s market value: As of Monday, it had a market capitalization of about $270 billion, according to FactSet.
The modified repurchase program will be effective for two years through March 2024,
said on Tuesday morning Hong Kong time. It said the 67% increase in the firepower allocated for buybacks was “a sign of confidence about the company’s continued growth in the future.”
Chinese technology stocks in Hong Kong, China and in the U.S.—where they are listed as American depositary receipts—have been highly volatile recently amid worries that U.S. regulators may move to delist Chinese companies as soon as 2024 and signs that Beijing’s long-running regulatory crackdown will continue.
Alibaba’s New York Stock Exchange-listed ADRs are down nearly 13% so far this year—and have fallen about 57% over the past 12 months—according to FactSet. Its stock also trades in Hong Kong, where shares rose about 4% in early trading on Tuesday.
Alibaba said it repurchased about $9.2 billion worth of ADRs as of March 18 under its previous program.
Separately, the company said Weijian Shan, executive chairman of investment group PAG, would join the board as an independent director starting March 31.
Chief Executive
Börje Ekholm,
who has served on the board since 2015, will step down the same day, Alibaba said.
Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com and Quentin Webb at quentin.webb@wsj.com
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Appeared in the March 22, 2022, print edition as ‘Alibaba Increases Share Buybacks to $25 Billion.’
