Alibaba Unloads $360 Million of Bilibili in Latest Asset Sale
(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. sold almost $360 million of stock in Chinese streaming platform Bilibili Inc. at a significant discount, the latest in a string of asset deals from an e-commerce pioneer seeking capital to invest in AI and rejuvenate the business.
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Alibaba priced the sale of 30.85 million Bilibili American depositary receipts at $11.60 each, according to people familiar with the matter, asking not to be named as the information is private. That’s about a 5.5% discount to the stock’s closing price on Wednesday. Bilibili plunged as much as 8.4% in Hong Kong on Friday, its biggest drop in two months.
Alibaba, for over a decade one of China’s most prolific investors in everything from retailers to startups, has over the past year begun steadily whittling down its holdings. It’s sold down shares of electric-vehicle maker XPeng Inc. as well as AI firm SenseTime Group Inc., while cutting back its stake in Hong Kong-listed ride-sharing firm GogoX Holdings Ltd.
The company is now in the midst of an overhaul intended to refocus its vast business empire on core retailing as well as technology-oriented fields from the cloud to artificial intelligence. Alibaba led major