Original title: how much equity does Ma Yun still hold in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd?
Produced | Morgan Stanley Finance and Economics
Not long ago, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd released his annual report for fiscal year 2021, which not only disclosed the performance of Ali Ecology, but also left a big "melon" to the capital market.
According to the financial report, all directors and senior executives of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd hold 2.3%, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Deputy Chairman of the Board Cai Chongxin holds 1.4%, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's main shareholder Softbank Corp. holds 24.8%, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma's share is not disclosed. This has led to speculation that Jack Ma may have made a big reduction in his holdings in the past year.
But this speculation is likely to be overinterpreted.
Although Ma Yun has reduced his stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd several times in recent years, the annual report for fiscal year 2020 disclosed in July 2020 shows that Ma Yun's direct and indirect shareholding is still 4.8 per cent.
According to the financial report, as of the end of March 2020, Ma Yun directly held 3.7123 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, accounting for less than 0.02% of the total equity, mainly through several foreign entities. Among them, APN Ltd., which is 70 per cent owned by Ma Yun, holds 280 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd; Yun Capital Limited and Ying Capital Limited, which are wholly owned by Ma Yun Charitable Foundation, each hold 68.847 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd; in addition, JC Properties Limited and JSP Investment Limited, which are wholly owned by Ma Yun Family Trust, hold 340 million shares and 282 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd respectively.
According to this calculation, the majority of Ma Yun's stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is held by his family trust, accounting for about 2.87%; his personal direct holding and holding of APN shares account for about 1.29%; and the rest is held by Ma Yun Charitable Foundation.
Since Alibaba Group Holding Ltd also clearly disclosed the details of Jack Ma's shareholding in July 2020, why not disclose it on the shareholder list this year?
In fact, this has something to do with Jack Ma's "retirement". Although Ma Yun handed over the post of chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to Zhang Yong as early as September 2019, Ma Yun was a member of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's board of directors until September last year, and Ma Yun did not withdraw from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's nomination and corporate governance committee in fiscal year 2021. No longer chairman.
As a member of Dong Jiangao, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is obliged to disclose Ma Yun's shareholding at that time in the annual report published in July 2010. after Ma Yun withdrew from the list of senior executives and the board of directors, as a non-major shareholder with a stake of less than 5%, the Hong Kong stock market and the US stock market did not make a requirement.
Since most of Ma Yun's stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is done through foreign entities, we don't know whether there are equity changes within each entity, but we can get a glimpse of the APN joint venture with Tsai Chongxin.
APN, in which Ma Yun and Tsai Chongxin own 70% and 30% respectively, holds a total of 400 million shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's common shares, which have been fully pledged to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd for Ant Group.Cash guarantee. According to the financial information, this part of the equity is still held by both and is under pledge.
It is worth mentioning that although Jack Ma's stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has changed from transparent to opaque, it has not affected the outside world's recognition of his wealth. Jack Ma ranked third among all Chinese billionaires with a fortune of $44.4 billion, according to the Forbes real-time rich list.