Alibaba shares jump after record $2.8bn anti-monopoly fine
Mark Sweney, 12 April 2021
Shares in Alibaba surged on Monday after the e-commerce company said that a record $2.8bn (£2bn) fine handed down by Chinese regulators marked the end of an investigation into anti-competitive practices at the company.
Top executives at the company, founded by the billionaire Jack Ma, told investors that while Chinese regulators continued a wider investigation into the sprawling conglomerates in the country’s tech industry, they believed the multibillion dollar fine announced at the weekend marked the end of the focus on Alibaba. The company is listed in Hong Kong and its shares climbed as much as 9% on the management’s comments.
“We are pleased we can put this matter behind us,” said Joe Tsai, the executive vice-chair of Alibaba Group. “With this penalty decision we’ve received good guidance on some of the specific issues under the anti-monopoly law. Other than the mergers review, we’re not aware of any other [antitrust] issues.”
China’s market regulators imposed the fine on Alibaba, worth 4% of its domestic revenues in 2019, for restricting merchants that use its website from doing business or running promotions on rival e-commerce platforms. Alibaba said that it will spend “billions of dollars” to improve the experience of merchants on its site.
