Alibaba's Market Cap Has More Than Halved Since Ant IPO Debacle

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA has lost over half its market value in the year since China postponed its finance arm Ant Group's IPO, Nikkei Asia reports. Alibaba's market capitalization slumped to $361 billion from the highs of $846 billion in October 2020.

• Ant Group's valuation sunk from over $300 billion a year back to $200 billion.
• The management revenue projections reflected the core e-commerce business weakness and seemed intended to head off further damage to Alibaba's stock price after an already rough year.
• Related Content: Jack Ma's Ant IPO Unlikely To Happen Before 2022 Over New Regulatory Hurdles: Report
• JD.com Inc JD has already started to capitalize on Alibaba's weakness, further worsened by the antitrust violations by the latter.
• Additionally, China's leading online retailer Pinduoduo Inc PDD and TikTok parent ByteDance have forayed into mobile payment services, adding to Alibaba's woes.
• Another potential deadfall involves live streaming influencers who promote products from Alibaba's online marketplace. Livestreaming is lucrative both for influencers and for Alibaba.
• However, long-standing tax-related practices in the industry are drawing regulatory scrutiny with possible tax evasion allegations.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" push could lead to a more challenging regulatory environment for Alibaba, which faced flak for excessive profits.
• Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 1% at $13..30 in the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.