Alibaba and two executives buy back $500 million in shares

Alibaba Group Holding and its Chairman Jack Ma and Vice Chairman Joe Tsai have taken part in a share buyback worth a combined $500 million as part of a $4 billion stock repurchase scheme announced in August, the company said on Monday. The buyback has come as the e-commerce group’s shares languish a dollar or so off their IPO price of $68 and as it struggles with slowing growth and a worsening outlook for the Chinese economy. Sina News reported that Ma and Tsai had signed an agreement to use their private funds to purchase shares worth $500 million. An Alibaba spokesman confirmed that the two executives were taking part along with the company itself, but declined to elaborate on the amounts being purchased by each party. The $4 billion repurchase programme announced in August was slated to take place over two years and was aimed at offsetting the impact of Alibaba’s share-based compensation programmes. A previous report revealed that Alibaba Group is looking to increase its footprint in India and is possibly exploring buying a stake in India’s largest Internet firm Flipkart Ltd. The sources say that the talks are at an initial stage and the deal is dependent on whether or not Flipkart is willing to offer a discount on its current valuation of $15 billion. There is also speculation of Alibaba talking to Snapdeal but it wants a discount on the firm’s current valuation of $6.5 billion. With inputs from Reuters