Latest news with #Alibaba-affiliate
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Online broker Tiger to double Hong Kong headcount, targets offshore China wealth
By Selena Li HONG KONG (Reuters) -Tiger Securities plans to double its headcount in Hong Kong over the next two to three years as the online brokerage targets a bigger share of the growing offshore Chinese wealth in the financial hub, its chief executive said. The Singapore-headquartered firm, founded in 2014 in Beijing, currently employs 60 people in Hong Kong, where it started operations in late 2022, founder and CEO Tinahua Wu told Reuters late Monday. "Hong Kong is a very important global financial centre and it's not only about the several million local residents," Wu said. Tiger's parent firm UP Fintech Holding listed in the U.S. in 2019. "It is because it's backed by China," the 40-year-old former tech veteran said, adding growing accumulation of Chinese wealth offshore needs investment services. Securities trading activities have risen in the offshore Chinese market since Beijing started to unveil a slew of stimulus last September, a trend which has not been dampened by the global trade tensions, according to Wu. Mainland investors have poured HK$651 billion ($83 billion) into Hong Kong-listed shares via the Southbound Stock Connect so far this year, more than double the HK$283 billion during the same period last year, CICC analysts said in a note on Tuesday. The capital inflows augurs well for local brokerages closely connected to clients in China, the world's second-largest economy, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war weighs on investor appetite for U.S. assets. The buoyant Hong Kong market has attracted some companies such as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group to foray into Hong Kong by acquiring a 50.55% stake in local broker Bright Smart in April. As more Chinese high-net worth individuals set up family offices in Hong Kong and domestic companies increasingly seek to expand offshore, Wu said Tiger expects sizable growth in demand from both individual and corporate clients. Tiger holds more than $50 billion worth of assets globally and operates in markets beyond Hong Kong, including the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. The brokerage's assets under custody, a key measure of client holdings in Tiger's Hong Kong accounts, quadrupled in the first quarter of 2025 from the same period last year, according to UP Fintech's first quarter report. Strong pipeline of initial public listings in Hong Kong with "star" Chinese firms coming to raise funds in the city has also resulted in heightened interest in buying and trading new shares, he said. ($1 = 7.8435 Hong Kong dollars)
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alibaba Revenue Beats Estimates as Signs of a Comeback Mount
(Bloomberg) -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. posted its fastest pace of revenue growth in more than a year, reflecting a turnaround in its commerce business and big strides into the critical field of AI. Trump to Halt NY Congestion Pricing by Terminating Approval Sorry, Kids: Disney's New York Headquarters Is for Grown-Ups Airbnb Billionaire Offers Pre-Fab Homes for LA Fire Victims Child Migrant Watchdog Gutted in DOGE Cuts Chicago Council Delays $830 Million Bond Vote Amid Scrutiny It reported an 8% rise in sales to 280.2 billion yuan ($38.6 billion) in the December quarter, versus an average projection for 277.4 billion yuan. Net income rose to 48.9 billion yuan. Its US shares climbed. Alibaba is staging a comeback after a brutal government clampdown gutted its internet business, once by far China's dominant online commerce platform. The business began to turn around in 2024 after Joe Tsai and Eddie Wu — two of co-founder Jack Ma's most trusted lieutenants — retook the helm and focused investment on AI and e-commerce. Click here for a live blog on the results. Alibaba has gained some $100 billion of market value in 2025, though it's still worth a fraction of its pre-crackdown peak. Ma himself joined a select group of the biggest names in Chinese technology and business at a televised summit convened this week by Xi Jinping — signifying Alibaba's return to favor after years in the cold. The gathering featured entrepreneurs across a broad swath of industry, notably from the sphere of artificial intelligence. Ma was the highest-profile casualty of Xi's crackdown on the internet and private sector in 2020, when authorities scuttled the blockbuster initial public offering of Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group Co. That episode kicked off a yearslong campaign to tighten state control over the economy, rein in the nation's billionaire class and shift resources toward Xi's priorities including national security and technological self-sufficiency. Once one of China's most outspoken entrepreneurs, Ma largely disappeared from public view. But authorities have taken a less combative approach as China's economy slowed and companies aligned themselves with Xi's push for leadership in areas like AI. Alibaba, which operates one of the world's biggest cloud services platforms, wowed investors this year by making major headway in that arena during the post-ChatGPT era. Why China Investors Believe Tech Crackdown is Over: QuickTake Since the advent of OpenAI's chatbot, Alibaba has invested in a clutch of China's most promising startups, including Moonshot and Zhipu. It prioritized the expansion of the cloud business that underpins AI development, slashing prices to win back the customers that fled during the turbulent years. It also decided to spend big on AI, joining a race led by Baidu Inc. at the time. Its Qwen AI model has performed well in official benchmark tests and signaled the company's growing relevance in the field. And Apple Inc. is incorporating Alibaba's AI technology into Chinese iPhones, a vote of confidence in its prowess. What Bloomberg Intelligence Says The primary cause might have been lower earnings at Taobao-Tmall, which increased merchant and user perks to bolster e-commerce market share in China. That headwind would weaken if mainland consumer sentiment improves in the next 12 months. Adjustments to international digital commerce unit AIDC and the operations of logistics business Cainiao amid the US-China trade war could hurt earnings, particularly in the first half of this year. Alibaba's push for greater use of its public cloud services and AI-related products, at reduced prices, is meant to bolster revenue growth, but the subsidies must have undermined margin gains from economies of scale. - Catherine Lim and Trini Tan, analysts Click here for the research. Tsai and Wu also accelerated the unloading of non-core assets such as in physical retail, raising capital to bankroll AI investments as well and an international expansion spearheaded by newly appointed e-commerce chief Jiang Fan. He now heads up Alibaba's effort to fend off up-and-coming rivals including ByteDance Ltd. and PDD Holdings Inc. DeepSeek's sudden rise to global prominence last month - a shock to both Silicon Valley and Wall Street — has boosted Chinese tech stocks including Alibaba in recent weeks. The stock is trading at over 13 times estimated forward earnings, up from less than 9 just last month. Alibaba's valuation could return to its five-year average of 15 times if it continue to show progress, said Xiadong Bao, fund manager at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management. Why China Investors Believe Tech Crackdown is Over: QuickTake --With assistance from Zheping Huang. Japan Perfected 7-Eleven. Why Can't the US Get It Right? How Med Spas Conquered America Before DeepSeek Blew Up, Chatbot Arena Announced Its Arrival The Startup That Stepped In When the Baby Formula Supply Chain Broke Elon Musk's DOGE Is a Force Americans Can't Afford to Ignore ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Xi Jinping Attends Meeting With Chinese Private Sector Leaders
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a meeting with prominent entrepreneurs on Monday, a potentially momentous show of support for the private sector after years of turmoil. Progressive Portland Plots a Comeback Why American Mobility Ground to a Halt A Filmmaker's Surreal Journey Into His Own Private Winnipeg How to Build a Neurodiverse City SpaceX Bid to Turn Texas Starbase Into City Is Set for Vote in May Xi delivered a speech after listening to representatives of private firms, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Premier Li Qiang also showed up at the meeting, Xinhua said. It didn't elaborate on which firms were represented. Chinese leaders had been expected to meet with high-profile executives including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma and Deepseek founder Liang Wenfeng on Monday. Such a summit would send a powerful signal that the Communist Party is adopting a more supportive stance toward the private-sector companies that fuel most of the country's economic growth. Ma was the highest-profile casualty of Xi's crackdown on the private sector in 2020, when authorities shocked the world by scuttling the blockbuster initial public offering of Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group Co. The outspoken entrepreneur disappeared from public view after the Ant episode kicked off a yearslong campaign to tighten state control over the world's second-largest economy, rein in the nation's billionaire class and shift resources toward Xi's priorities including national security and technological self-sufficiency. But authorities have taken a less combative approach more recently as China's economy slowed and companies like Alibaba aligned themselves with Xi's push for leadership in areas like artificial intelligence. The Undocumented Workers Who Helped Build Elon Musk's Texas Gigafactory The Unicorn Boom Is Over, and Startups Are Getting Desperate Japan Perfected 7-Eleven. Why Can't the US Get It Right? The NBA Has Fallen Into an Efficiency Trap How Silicon Valley Swung From Obama to Trump ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
