Jack is back – and investors are relieved.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s stock price soared on Wednesday after billionaire founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance in nearly three months.
Alibaba shares listed in the U.S. jumped 6.8 percent in the premarket to $ 268.81 as of 7:03 am, after Ma reappeared in an online ceremony that his charity organized for rural teachers, quelling concerns about your long silence.
The English teacher who became a technology mogul spoke of a room adorned with floral arrangements and a large painting in a 50-second video that also included images of Ma visiting a school in Chinese Tonglu County last week.
Before the brief clip, Ma has not been seen in public since giving a speech on October 24 criticizing China’s regulatory system. This apparently drew the ire of Chinese officials, who suspended the initial public offering from Ma’s digital payments company, Ant Group, the following month.
Ma’s unusual absence sparked speculation earlier this month that he had disappeared – especially after he failed to appear in the final episode of “Africa’s Business Heroes”, an “Apprentice” style TV show he created.
But Duncan Clark, an investor and consultant in China’s technology sector who has known Ma for decades, recently told NPR that Ma had only “been ordered to hide”.
Ma, 56, is the fourth richest man in China, with a total fortune of about $ 53 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth has fallen by about $ 8 billion since the day of his fateful speech in October.
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