Consecutive events have caused Alibaba (BABA) to lose 30% of its market capitalization from the 27th October to 24th December. But what happened?
On 3rd November, Beijing halted the dual listing of the biggest IPO, Ant Group, a major fintech player in which Alibaba owns 33% equity.
One week prior, the founder of Alibaba and Ant Group, Jack Ma publicly criticized Chinese regulators for being risk-averse.
Last week, Chinese regulators announced an antitrust investigation into Alibaba suspecting monopolistic practices causing a 13% sell-off plunging a single trading session.
Alibaba is responding by increasing the share buyback program from $6 billion to $10 billion effective through the end of 2022. A share buyback aims at decreasing the shares outstanding, increasing EPS and hence, increasing the share price.