Alibaba’s (BABA) Hong Kong-listed stock is up 11% after the Chinese e-commerce giant announced that it has increased the size of its share buyback program to $25 billion U.S.
The share repurchase scheme will be effective for a two-year period through March 2024, the company said in a news release.
Alibaba has bought back about 56.2 million American depositary shares (ADRs), worth about $9.2 billion U.S., under the previously announced buyback program.
The Hangzhou-headquartered e-commerce company said it is looking to boost investor confidence as its shares have lost around two-thirds of their value since hitting an all-time high in October 2020.
Alibaba has faced a number of issues over the past year, including macroeconomic headwinds and continued regulatory tightening from the Chinese government that led authorities to slap the company with a $2.8 billion U.S. antitrust fine last year.
China introduced sweeping new rules across the technology industry, often without warning, over the past 14 months. The moves shook investor confidence and wiped billions of dollars of value off the country’s publicly traded technology companies.
Alibaba also said that it has appointed Weijian Shan, executive chairman of Hong Kong-headquartered investment group PAG, to the its board of directors as an independent director, effective March 31. Shan will serve on the board’s audit committee.
