Japan's SoftBank Group To Sell Most Of Its Stake In Alibaba : Report

(RTTNews) - Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTBY.PK, SFTBF.PK) has moved to sell most of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA), the Financial Times reported citing an analysis of regulatory filings.

The report said that SoftBank Group, led by billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, has sold about $7.2 billion in Alibaba shares this year through prepaid forward contracts, which will eventually lower its stake to just 3.8%.

SoftBank at one point had a 34% stake after Alibaba's U.S. IPO in 2014. At the end of 2019, SoftBank owned about 25% of the Chinese e-commerce group.

Last month, Alibaba said it would split into six companies in an effort to "unlock shareholder value."

BABA closed Wednesday's regular trading at $93.84 down $5.92 or 5.93%. In the after-hours trade, the stock further dropped $1.04 or 1.11%.