Jack is back – and investors are relieved.
The share price of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba rose on Wednesday after billionaire founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance in nearly three months.
Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares jumped 6.8 percent in premarket trading to $ 268.81 as of 7:03 a.m. after Ma resurfaced in an online ceremony that her charity organized for rural teachers, raising concerns about their long silence.
The tech-savvy English teacher spoke from a room adorned with floral arrangements and a large painting in a 50-second video that also included footage of Ma visiting a school in Tonglu County, China last week.
Prior to the brief clip, Ma had not been seen in public since making an October 24 speech that struck down China’s regulatory system. This appears to have angered Chinese officials, who stopped the initial public offering of Ma’s digital payments firm, Ant Group, the following month.
Ma’s unusual absence sparked speculation earlier this month that she had disappeared, especially after she was unable to appear in the final episode of “Africa’s Business Heroes,” a “Learning” -style TV show. which he created.
But Duncan Clark, an investor and adviser in China’s technology sector who has been known to Ma for decades, recently told NPR that Ma had been “told to get down.”
Ma, 56, is China’s fourth richest man with a total fortune of about $ 53 billion, according to the Bloomberg billionaire index. His net worth has fallen about $ 8 billion since the day of his fateful October speech.
With publishing cables