Co-Founder Plans to Sell Off

Dai Shan (Trudy), Co-founder, Director, and TOP5 Insider at Alibaba filed a Form 144 on January 4, 2023. Not only is this the company’s first insider trade of 2023, but Trudy Dai is also a frequent trader in BABA stock.

In this case, she filed a form via Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC with plans to sell 494,000 ADRs. In total, these are worth around $51.34 million at an estimated stock price of almost $103.92. Trudy Dai, who served as Alibaba’s Industrial E-commerce President, has filed Form 144s since 2020 and this form is only her latest.

According to the Form, the recipient of these securities is Golden Jade Investment Ltd. As per the Annual Report of Alibaba.com Ltd, Golden Jade is a trust-owned company owned by Dai.

Headlines and Stock Rise

On January 4, 2023, a plan presented by Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba was approved by Chinese Regulators. The plan is to raise nearly 10.5 billion yuan (or $1.5 billion) for its consumer units.

Later, however, another headline unveiled that Jack Ma will be taking a back seat as the owner of another group he founded: Ant Group. Ma had been missing from the public eye in late 2020 since he made statements about China’s financial-regulation system.

Last but not the least, Alibaba itself announced a billion-dollar-investment in Turkey. The investment will namely be at a logistics hub in Istanbul as well as a data center in the county’s capital, Ankara.

All these plans for the future, despite its founder Ma’s fall from grace, seem to establish that Alibaba’s future is anything but bleak. To add, Goldman Sachs recently disclosed its conviction buy list that included Alibaba stock as well. The investment company further added that Chinese stocks could rally by as much as 15%. Also sharing Goldman’s sentiments was Morgan Stanley - the listed broker in Dai’s Form 144 - which selected Alibaba as their top pick for the tech sector.

This is not the first time Trudy Dai has filed a Form 144 for her company’s shares in ADRs but the timing of her filing may still be considered interesting.