(Reuters) -Chinese e-commerce large Alibaba Group Holding Ltd mentioned on Tuesday it upsized its share buyback programme to $25 billion from $15 billion, the second time prior to now yr.
Alibaba mentioned it had already re-purchased about $9.2 billion of its U.S.-listed shares as of March 18 beneath its programme, which was initially slated to final till the tip of this yr.
The firm’s shares had slumped in December 2020 after the then buyback quantity of $10 billion failed to ease issues a couple of regulatory crackdown on co-founder Jack Ma’s e-commerce and monetary empire.
Alibaba had raised its buyback to $15 billion final August. (https://bit.ly/36aOVsd)
The present programme might be efficient for a two-year interval by March 2024, Alibaba mentioned in its assertion on Tuesday.
“The upsized share buyback underscores our confidence in Alibaba’s long-term, sustainable development potential and worth creation,” mentioned Alibaba Group’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu.
“Alibaba’s inventory worth doesn’t pretty replicate the corporate’s worth given our sturdy monetary well being and enlargement plans,” mentioned Xu.
The firm additionally appointed Weijian Shan, the chief chairman of funding group PAG, as an unbiased director to its board, and mentioned Borje Ekholm, the chief govt officer of Ericsson, will retire from Alibaba’s board on March 31.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
