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Jack Ma has resurfaced in a video praising Chinese teachers, marking the first time the billionaire has been seen in public since Ant Group’s initial $ 37 billion public offering was halted nearly three months.
The Chinese tech entrepreneur and founder of e-commerce group Alibaba dropped out of public view after criticizing the country’s regulators and state-owned banks in late October, prompting speculation about his fate.
Following the speech, Mr. Ma was dressed by officials in Beijing, and regulators halted the IPO of Ant, the payments group he controls, which was to be the largest.
Mr. Ma also skipped the set of a talent TV show he created for African entrepreneurs in November, which he had come to judge.
Alibaba shares traded in Hong Kong rose 8.7% after the video was released.
“My colleagues and I have studied and reflected, and we have become more determined to devote ourselves to education and public welfare,” Ma said, according to comments posted on an information portal supported by the government of Zhejiang province of China, where Alibaba is based.
The video, posted on Wednesday, included a brief clip of Mr. Ma last week visiting a school his foundation had rebuilt.
$ 52.9 billion
Jack Ma’s current estimated wealth
Mr Ma’s video came as Alibaba faced an antitrust investigation that hit its stock and the tech group tried to raise billions of dollars in a bond offer.
The antitrust investigation was announced on December 24, just weeks after the Chinese Communist Party’s political bureau announced that it would crack down on monopoly abuses and “disorderly expansion of capital.” On December 26, China’s central bank issued a rare public rebuke from the Ant Group.
During his nearly three-month absence from the public, rumors circulated that Mr. Ma may have left China. Many of his friends insisted that he was still in the country and communicated freely, but that he had to keep a low profile as Ant and Alibaba negotiations with regulators continued.
The wealth of Mr. Ma, one of the richest people in China, rose from $ 61 billion to $ 52.9 billion following his October speech, according to Bloomberg data.
Mr. Ma said in the video that it is the “duty and responsibility of our generation of business owners” to support teachers and education in rural China.
A spokesperson for the Jack Ma Foundation said that Mr. Ma had “participated in the online ceremony of the annual rural teachers initiative event on January 20”.
His charitable foundation has focused over the past year on Covid-19 relief efforts in China and around the world. Mr. Ma has been hailed as a hero in Africa for donating medical supplies to all countries on the continent.
In recent years, other Chinese billionaires caught up in high-profile disputes with the government have also disappeared for periods of time or sought to distract from their charitable work.
After Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group was forced to curb a frenzy of aggressive overseas acquisitions in 2017, the real estate and entertainment mogul invested in “patriotic” theme parks, including some in relatively poor rural areas. President Xi Jinping has made the eradication of poverty one of the main goals of his administration.
In December 2015, the founder of the Fosun group, Guo Guangchang, briefly disappeared, apparently as part of a corruption investigation involving a former vice mayor of Shanghai. His disappearance sparked panic among holders of Fosun stocks and bonds until he was released a few days later.
Additional reporting by Nian Liu in Beijing
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