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KIC divests all Alibaba stake, mixed on other Chinese tech stocks

The logo for Alibaba Group is seen on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 3. (Reuters-Yonhap)
The logo for Alibaba Group is seen on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 3. (Reuters-Yonhap)
South Korea‘s sole sovereign wealth fund, Korea Investment Corp., divested the entirety of 2.9 million shares in Alibaba Group Holding -- the 25th-biggest United States-listed stock it was holding earlier this year -- during the second quarter of this year, a filing showed Friday.

The quarterly report, submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, also indicated that its positions toward US-listed Chinese technology stocks were mixed at the end of June, before Beijing’s sweeping crackdown on Chinese firms began to materialize in July.

The KIC‘s stock holdings in Alibaba, worth $221.5 million as of end-March, reduced to zero since April as China doubled down its crackdown over China’s largest e-commerce player and its cofounder Jack Ma.

In the meantime, Alibaba‘s financial arm Ant Group, whose plan to go public on the US stock market late last year faced a regulatory blockade from Chinese authorities, was restructured into a financial holding company overseen by China‘s state-controlled central bank in April.

Besides Alibaba, KIC’s holdings in Tencent Music Entertainment Group and TAL Education Group have also decreased by 3 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

The KIC‘s holdings in internet giant Baidu, however, rose by over 400 percent to $228.7 million during the second quarter.

Other Chinese stocks whose holdings the KIC increased include e-commerce firm Pinduoduo, live-streaming service provider Bilibili and social network Weibo. KIC was also holding $283,000-worth of shares in ride-hailing app Didi Global.

This appears to have left the sovereign wealth fund spooked by the Beijing’s latest technology crackdown as it becomes clear it is not limited to Jack Ma and his company.

The Chinese authorities in early July launched a cybersecurity review into Didi for its alleged data security breach and ordered app stores to stop offering the Didi app. Chinese regulators are also tightening data security rules to urge domestic tech firms to undergo a security review before carrying out a foreign stock listing.

The clampdown has been sending shock waves to Chinese companies dedicated to technology and education that are trading on the foreign stock bourse. The benchmark Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index dropped nearly 25 percent since July.

Meanwhile, the SEC filing showed that the KIC‘s stock exposure rose $3.2 billion during the April-June period to $34.9 billion as of end-June,

The KIC was seen relentlessly betting bigger on US Big Tech. Its top five holdings were Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Google’s holding company Alphabet and Facebook, out of the total of 741 companies.

Its holdings in e-commerce giant Amazon.com saw the sharpest upsurge in valuation out of 741 stocks, by $336.3 million to $1.2 billion, followed by Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook.

The KIC was managing $183.1 billion worth of dollar-denominated assets entrusted by the Bank of Korea and the Finance Ministry as of the end of 2020.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)
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