File this under the category of “I should have kept my big, fat mouth shut!”
Jack Ma, founder and CEO of Alibaba Group Holding in China was feeling pretty bold a year ago. He took the opportunity to criticize the Chinese Financial system last October.
Well, since then, he was in hiding for months, and his company saw a dip of $344 billion in market cap, the biggest value reduction in the history of the world.
Three weeks ago Alibaba’s stock price in Hong Kong tanked after being at an all-time high. It is now 43% lower than it was in October of 2020.
If you forgot what Ma said that got him into so much trouble here’s a reminder. He slammed the global financial regulations of China, saying that it stifled innovation.
It was at the Bund Summit in Shanghai when he said “after the Asian financial crisis, the risk control highlighted in the Basel Accords were a priority for regulators,” which led to a reduction in development because the world was so fixated on risk control.
Oh, not to pile on but Chinese regulators also imposed a fine of $2.8 billion on Alibaba for what they felt was abusing its dominant position in the market in 2020. That was the highest fine ever imposed, so if nothing else Ma is making history.
Ma is still a billionaire though. He’s been spotted in Hong Kong recently living a normal life and putting time into his hobbies.
As far as we can tell, he has no speeches at business conferences planned.
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