Alibaba lost $150b in market value over investors’ uncertainty, says report

In November, Alibaba’s fintech arm Ant Group suspended its listing in Shanghai due to regulation issues and subsequently shelved its IPO in the Hong Kong stock market less than 48 hours before its anticipated US$34.5 billion listing. The tech giant’s shares have decreased by over 16% since its IPO plans came to a grinding halt.

The following month, Chinese regulators kicked off an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices at Alibaba Group, while its affiliate Ant Group was asked to return to its roots as a provider of payments services.

Should the tech giant be found to have abused its market leadership, it may be fined up to 10% of its revenue or US$7.8 billion, said the report.

Alibaba has recorded US$33 billion in revenue for the three months ended December 2020, according to Bloomberg, citing the average of analyst forecasts. It further said that the company saw its slowest expansion for a December quarter since 2015.

See also: Alibaba’s and Tencent’s growing tentacles in Southeast Asia

Apart from the crackdown from regulators, the firm also faces fierce competition from its rivals JD.com and Pinduoduo, as well as TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and the Tencent-backed Kuaishou.