Softbank Corp fell the most in seven months after Alibaba Group Holding Ltd went public, as investors who were buying the Japanese carrier as a proxy for the Chinese company could purchase Alibaba shares directly.
Softbank, the biggest shareholder in the e-commerce company with about a third of its equity, tumbled 6.1 percent to close at ¥8,207 in Tokyo for its biggest drop since Feb. 3. Japan’s third-largest carrier had gained 29 percent between Aug. 8 and Alibaba’s listing in New York on Friday.
Alibaba surged 38 percent in its US trading debut after raising a record amount in an initial public offering.
The company is now valued at more than US$231 billion, and Japan’s third-largest carrier forecast a gain of about ¥500 billion (US$4.6 billion) related to the listing.
“If you want the Alibaba exposure, you just buy Alibaba,” Amir Anvarzadeh, a manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc in Singapore, said in a phone interview.
“Softbank’s 25 percent surge the last few weeks was partly due to that the Alibaba listing was pending, was finally coming through, and people were just short-covering ahead of the event,” he said.
Another big Alibaba shareholder, Yahoo Inc, also dropped after Alibaba’s debut on Friday.
The Web portal’s shares fell 2.7 percent to US$40.93, and it now is worth less than the value of its Asian assets.
Yahoo sold more than 20 percent of its Alibaba shares in the Chinese company’s IPO.
China Dongxiang Group Co (中國動向集團), which said in Sept. 2011 it planned to commit US$100 million in a limited partnership established to invest in Alibaba, tumbled as much as 12 percent in Hong Kong trading.
Softbank’s forecast of a one-time gain of about ¥500 billion was related to a previously announced conversion of preferred Alibaba shares into ordinary shares, and the dilution of its equity stake in the Chinese company. Softbank’s stake was lowered after Alibaba issued new shares last week.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last