Alibaba Lays Off 10,000 In Three Months After 50 Per Cent Drop In Net Income: Report

Alibaba clocked a 50 per cent drop in its net income to 22.74 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) in the June quarter, down from 45.14 billion yuan in the same period last year

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, a Chinese e-commerce giant, has laid off around 10,000 employees in three months, quoting various media reports news agency ANI said on Thursday.

Alibaba Group let go of over 9,241 employees during the June quarter. According to the reports, the company slashed its overall headcount to around 2,45,700. According to the report, these lay-offs come after Alibaba logged a 50 per cent decline in its net income in June. These are an effort to cut expenses amid sluggish sales and a slowing economy in the country.

The e-commerce firm clocked a 50 per cent drop in its net income to 22.74 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) in the June quarter, down from 45.14 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Alibaba, which was founded in 1999, went through a major reshuffle when Ma passed the baton as CEO to Daniel Zhang in 2015 and further appointed him as Chairman in 2019.

ANI said that Alibaba in early July announced plans to apply for a primary listing in Hong Kong opening up the firm to a vast pool of mainland China investors for the first time, media reports said.

It went public in New York, the US in September 2014 and completed a secondary listing in Hong Kong in November 2019. The move would see Alibaba become the first large company with primary listings in both New York and Hong Kong. This has come in an aftermath of Beijing's crackdown on Ant Group which triggered the suspension of the Group's $37 billion initial public offering (IPO). Ant Group's controller Jack Ma has also not been seen in public since he criticised China's regulators and its state-owned banks in a speech in October.

Now the dual listing is a stark reminder that in China, no one individual or company is more important than the Communist party. With the announcement by Alibaba for a primary listing in Hong Kong, the company will also keep its listing in the United States.

The move was announced on Tuesday would see Alibaba become the first large dual-primary listed company on the New York Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange, taking advantage of a new rule allowing dual primary listings, reported Al Jazeera.

In January, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced it would allow “innovative” Chinese firms with weighted voting rights or variable interest entities, where a company sets up an offshore entity that allows foreign investors to buy into the stock, to carry out dual primary listings in the city.

Alibaba's CEO Daniel Zhang said that the company was pursuing another primary listing venue to foster a “wider and more diversified investor base”.

Alibaba saw its stock price plummet after Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown on the private industry that left the firm with a $2.8billion penalty and scuppered the initial public offering (IPO) of its affiliate Ant.

Alibaba’s stock jumped 4 per cent at the start of trading in Hong Kong amid expectations the move would give mainland China investors easier access to its shares.