Alibaba falls 7% in premarket trading after Chinese regulators open antitrust investigation into the company
- US-listed shares in Alibaba fell in premarket trading, after China regulators opened probe into the e-commerce company.
- It echoed the losses overnight in Asia, where the company's Hong Kong-listed shares closed 8.1% lower.
Separately, other watchdogs said they would hold talks with Alibaba's affiliate fintech company Ant Group. The Chinese government is increasing its oversight of large tech companies and, in particular, has cracked down on Jack Ma's tech empire.
US-registered shares in Alibaba, an e-commerce platform founded by Ma, were down 7.1% at $238.02 in pre-market trading on Thursday. This echoes the losses overnight in Asia, where the company's Hong Kong-listed shares closed 8.1% lower. This was the largest one-day drop in Alibaba's Asia-registered shares since mid-November, when Ant's IPO, which would have been the world's largest, was pulled at the last minute after China introduced stricter regulations for financial services.
Ma is also the co-founder of Ant, and China's richest person (as of November).
In separate statements released Thursday, both Alibaba and Ant Group said they had been notified about the regulatory actions and would cooperate, per The Wall Street Journal.