Stocks Ali Babagiant e-commerce Chinafell 9.4 percent in Tuesday (3/5) morning Hong Kong time trading, after its founder Jack Ma allegedly arrested by the police.
The CCTV report said a person surnamed Ma, of a similar clan to Jack Ma, was detained by the authorities. The report caught the attention of investors who suspected that the person in question was Jack Ma, who had been missing from the public radar.
As a result, Alibaba’s shares fell and the issuer lost its market capitalization of up to US$26 billion or equivalent to Rp374.4 trillion (exchange rate of Rp.14,400 per US dollar).
However, the Chinese broadcaster immediately issued a correction and eventually Alibaba shares recovered quickly, to minus only 1.76 percent.
The CCTV report stated that a person surnamed Ma was arrested for criminal activity in the eastern city of Hangzhou, where Alibaba is headquartered. The man has been the target of the Hangzhou police since last week.
According to the report, the person is suspected of inciting the subversion of state power through the internet and carrying out other activities that endanger national security.
Launching Forbes, Wednesday (4/5), currently further investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, the person’s full name has not been disclosed.
In the report, it is alleged that the person’s first name is one of Jack Ma’s first name characters, the character ‘Yun’, prompting speculation from local media outlets in China and Hong Kong that the allegations affect billionaire Alibaba Group.
Alibaba’s stock price rose after CCTV issued a correction that the person’s first name had two characters.
Separately, the nationalist tabloid Global Times reported that the arrested Ma was the director of the hardware research and development department of an IT firm who was brainwashed by outside anti-China forces.
As of this writing, neither Alibaba Group nor Ant Group have responded to requests for comment.
The confusion arises because Jack Ma, 57, has lived under the public’s radar since a landmark decision by the Chinese government to halt the IPO of fintech giant Ant Group’s US$35 billion plan.
Shortly after the IPO fiasco, Ma immediately disappeared from the public eye.
After that, Ma was not seen again in October 2021, when he reportedly attended a business meeting in Hong Kong and toured Europe.
(wel/one)
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