Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., lost nearly $3 billion in a single day as its shares fell by 8 percent in New York. Bloomberg Billionaires Index attributed this fall to the fact that its Ant Group’s listings in both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges were suspended.
Jack Ma is still a billionaire and is worth 56.1 billion. Bloomberg said that he added $11.5 billion to his wealth year to date. This Chinese High Network Individual was once a school teacher. He currently owns 4.2 percent of Alibaba and 1/3 of Ant. It was valued at $27.4 billion at the IPO (initial public offering price.)
Before its suspension by the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the IPO was expected to raise $34 billion. The offer was oversubscribed, The bids exceeded the share values 870 times. The Ant listing would have added at least 18 more billionaires to the world, some of them being early investors while others were employees. Jack Ma had said that the Ant Group’s IPO would have been the largest in human history but it was not to be.
On Tuesday Alibaba’s shares closed nearly 8.1 percent lower at $285.57 per share. They fell by 0.16 percent in the afternoon session.