Jack Ma resurfaced in a video praising China’s teachers, marking the first time the billionaire has been seen in public since the Ant Group’s planned $ 37 billion initial public offering was suspended nearly three months ago.
The Chinese tech entrepreneur and founder of e-commerce group Alibaba disappeared from public view after criticizing the country’s state regulators and banks in late October, prompting speculation about his whereabouts.
Following the speech, Ma was repressed by officials in Beijing and regulators suspended Ant’s IPO, the largest group of payments he controls.
Mr. Ma also skipped the footage of a TV show that he created for African entrepreneurs in November, and that he had been chosen to judge.
Hong Kong’s Alibaba shares rose 8.7% after the video’s release.
“My colleagues and I have been studying and thinking, and we have become more determined to dedicate ourselves to education and public welfare,” said Ma, according to comments posted on a news portal supported by the Zhejiang provincial government, where Alibaba is based.
The video, posted online on Wednesday, included a brief clip of Mr. Ma last week visiting a school his foundation had rebuilt.
$ 52.9 billion
Jack Ma’s estimated current wealth
Ma’s video came at a time when Alibaba is facing an antitrust investigation that has hit its stock and the technology group is trying to raise billions of dollars in a bond offering.
The antitrust investigation was announced on December 24, just weeks after the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo said it would crack down on monopoly abuses and “disorderly capital expansion”. On December 26, China’s central bank issued a rare public censure to Ant Group.
During his almost three-month absence from public view, rumors emerged that Ma may have left China. Many of his friends insisted that he was still in the country and communicating freely, but he needed to remain discreet while Ant and Alibaba’s negotiations with regulators continued.
The wealth of Ma, one of the richest people in China, fell from $ 61 billion to $ 52.9 billion after his speech in October, according to data from Bloomberg.
Mr. Ma said in the video that it was “the duty and responsibility of our generation of business operators” to support China’s rural teachers and education.
A spokesman for the Jack Ma Foundation said that Mr. Ma “attended the online ceremony of the Professor Rural initiative’s annual event on January 20”.
His charitable foundation last year focused on Covid-19’s relief efforts in China and around the world. Mr. Ma was hailed as a hero in Africa for donating medical supplies to all countries on the continent.
In recent years, other Chinese billionaires involved in high-profile disputes with the government have also disappeared for periods of time or have sought to divert attention to their charity work.
After Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group was forced to contain an aggressive overseas acquisition spree in 2017, the property and entertainment mogul invested in “patriotic” theme parks, some of them in relatively poor rural areas. President Xi Jinping prioritized the elimination of poverty as one of his government’s main goals.
In December 2015, Fosun Group founder Guo Guangchang disappeared briefly, allegedly in connection with a corruption investigation focused on a former Shanghai deputy mayor. His disappearance sparked panic between Fosun’s shares and bondholders until he was released a few days later.
Additional reporting by Nian Liu in Beijing