Alibaba plans to buy back shares worth up to $25 billion
The amended buyback program will be in effect for two years through March 2024

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA 11.00% has increased its share buyback program to $25 billion from $15 billion to reassure investors of the company's prospects after a year in which the stock has fallen by more than half.
The potential buybacks are sizeable compared to the market value of the Chinese e-commerce giant: As of Monday, the company had a market cap of about $270 billion, according to FactSet.
The amended buyback program will apply for two years to March 2024, Alibaba announced BABA 11.00% on Tuesday morning Hong Kong time. The 67 percent increase in funds earmarked for buybacks is "a sign of confidence in the company's continued growth going forward."
Chinese tech stocks in Hong Kong, China and the US -- where they are listed as American Depositary Receipts -- have been very volatile lately amid fears that US regulators could delist Chinese companies as early as 2024, and signs of it indicates that Beijing's long-running regulatory measures will continue.
Alibaba's ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange are down nearly 13% so far this year and about 57% over the past 12 months, FactSet reports. The company's shares are also traded in Hong Kong, where they were up 11% on Tuesday.
Alibaba said it had repurchased about $9.2 billion worth of ADRs as of March 18 under its previous program. This sum will be offset against the new total volume of 25 billion dollars.
Analysts at Citigroup called the expanded buyback plan "probably the largest share buyback program ever seen in China's internet sector," suggesting that Alibaba's management views its shares as undervalued and attractive.
Separately, the company said that Weijian Shan, executive chairman of investment group PAG, will join the board as an independent director from March 31. Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm, who has been on the board since 2015, will step down on the same day, Alibaba
said Returning money to shareholders These plans can prop up share prices by signaling confidence in the company's prospects and financial health while boosting earnings per share, but they've also sparked controversy in recent years, with critics arguing that it would be better to put the money back in d to invest in the company, for example in equipment, research and higher wages.
According to Goldman Sachs, the S&P 500 companies have $238 billion in buyback plans in the first two months of 2022, and the bank expects the total for the full year could rise 12% to $1 trillion .
Some of the biggest U.S. tech companies have even bigger buyback programs than Alibaba. For example, Google parent company Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. earmarked up to $50 billion and $60 billion for buybacks last year.





