According to recent market news, Alibaba will sell the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of the video platform Bilibili (Bilibili) at a price of US$11.60 per share, raising a total of US$357.8 million. On March 22, relevant people from Alibaba stated that the sale was mainly based on Alibaba's own capital management objectives and would not affect the business cooperation between the two parties. Alibaba's related businesses will continue to strengthen cooperation with Bilibili in various fields. Station B has yet to respond.
In the 2023 interim report, Bilibili disclosed the shareholdings of major shareholders. As of June 30, 2023, Alibaba held approximately 30.84 million Class Z ordinary shares, accounting for 9.42% of the equity of Class Z shares. In addition, Tencent holds approximately 13.2% of Class Z ordinary shares.
In the 2022 annual report, Bilibili disclosed that as of February 28, 2023, Bilibili Chairman and CEO Chen Rui holds 12.6% of the shares and 42.4% of the voting rights; Vice Chairman and COO Li Ni holds 2.1% of the shares and has 6.3% of the voting rights; Tencent holds 10.7% of the shares and has 3.8% of the voting rights; Alibaba holds 7.5% of the shares and has 2.7% of the voting rights.
Alibaba announced in February 2019 that it had invested nearly 24 million shares in Bilibili through its wholly-owned subsidiary Taobao China, becoming one of the major shareholders of Bilibili. According to a filing, Alibaba further increased its stake in Bilibili in 2021.
Recently, Alibaba has been reducing its investment portfolio. In early February, Tsai Chongxin, chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Group, said in the third quarter earnings call that Alibaba's sale of non-core assets was progressing smoothly. In the first nine months of the fiscal year as of the end of December last year, Alibaba Group had completed the withdrawal of US$1.7 billion in non-core assets and was actively studying how to withdraw from some listed companies.
In 2023, Ali has repeatedly reduced its holdings in the stocks of companies such as Enlight Media, SenseTime Technology, Huayi Brothers and Xpeng Motors. Just this week on March 20, Alibaba once again reduced its holdings of Xpeng Motors ADS and cashed out approximately US$314 million.
On the evening of March 7, Station B announced its unaudited financial reports for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. In 2023, Station B’s revenue will be 22.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%, and its net loss will be 4.8 billion yuan. Compared with the trend of expanding losses in previous years, Station B’s losses have narrowed by 36% in the past year.
On March 22, as of press time, Hong Kong stocks on Station B (09626) fell 7.11% to HK$88.9 per share, with a total market value of HK$37.47 billion. Alibaba (09988) fell 2.69% to HK$70.6 per share, with a total market value of HK$1.437 trillion.