Alibaba increases share repurchase programme to $10b, shares fall

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd listed in Hong Kong fell on Monday by over 7% to HK$212.20 ($27.37) after the company raised its share repurchase programme to $10 billion from $6 billion.

“This Share Repurchase Program will be effective for a two-year period through the end of 2022,” Alibaba said in a statement late on Sunday.

China’s market regulator launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba last week, part of an accelerating crackdown on anticompetitive behavior in China’s booming internet space.

The probe is part of an accelerating crackdown on monopolistic behavior in China’s booming internet space, and the latest setback for Ma, the 56-year-old former school teacher who founded Alibaba and became China’s most famous entrepreneur.

In a strongly worded editorial, the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily said that if “monopoly is tolerated, and companies are allowed to expand in a disorderly and barbarian manner, the industry won’t develop in a healthy, and sustainable way”.

Financial regulators on Sunday also urged Ant Group Co, an Alibaba affiliate, to rectify financial regulatory violations, after Chinese regulators abruptly suspended Ant’s blockbuster $37 billion initial public offerings in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Alibaba rival internet companies Meituan fell over 5% and JD.com dropped more than 2%.