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A year after Jack Ma’s critical speech & govt crackdown, Alibaba lost $344 billion in m-cap

Few people could have predicted the downward spiral for Alibaba Group Holding, when founder Jack Ma delivered a blunt criticism of China’s financial system last October. 


Yet one year on, the technology titan has lost a whopping $344 billion in market capitalisation (m-cap) – the biggest wipe-out of shareholders’ value globally, according to data compiled by the Bloomberg. Shortly after the now-infamous speech, Beijing suspended the listing of its fintech arm Ant Group and has since followed up with a widespread crackdown on the country’s most vibrant sectors, causing Chinese stocks to tank. 


Alibaba shares sank from an all-time high that month to a record low three weeks ago in Hong Kong as Beijing stepped up its scrutiny of the company’s practices and urged a restructure of its fintech business. Despite a 30 per cent recovery from October 5, the stock is still 43 per cent lower than its October 2020 peak. 


Bloomberg Intelligence expects active users of the e-commerce giant during the second quarter of this financial year to have beaten consensus projections as a result of China’s zero-COVID policy. Alibaba is set to report its earnings on November 5. 


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