This is the latest reduction in Alibaba's holdings after it sold 25 million of Xpeng's ADSs last year. An Alibaba executive resigned as a director of Xpeng.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA, HKG: 9988) has filed to sell another stake in Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV, HKG: 9868), the latest after last December's reduction.
Alibaba's Taobao China plans to sell 33 million shares of Xpeng's American Depositary Shares (ADSs), worth a total of about $314 million, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing overnight.
Each ADS represents two shares of Xpeng ordinary shares, and Alibaba acquired them in a pre-IPO investment, according to the filing.
An SEC filing on December 15 last year showed that Alibaba planned to sell 25 million shares of Xpeng's ADSs, with a total value of about $391 million.
Local media outlet Sina Tech cited Alibaba sources at the time as saying the move was based on the company's capital management goals, with its stake dropping from 10.2 percent to 7.5 percent after the sale of the shares.
The latest stake cut plan caused Xpeng ADS to fall overnight in the US, dropping 3.84 percent to $9.51 by the close of trading.
Xpeng's Hong Kong-traded shares also suffered a sell-off in early trading today, falling 7.52 percent to HK$37.50 at press time.
Earlier yesterday, Xpeng said in a Hong Kong stock exchange announcement that it terminated an agreement with Taobao China entered into in June 2021 for the appointment of the Alibaba candidate as a director.
At the same time, Xpeng said in the announcement that Alibaba executive Hu Xiao resigned as its director.
He Xiaopeng, Xpeng's chairman and CEO, thanked Alibaba for its support and said he looked forward to continued deep collaboration with the company's AI technology and innovation ecosystem.
On July 26, 2023, German automotive giant Volkswagen announced that it had signed an agreement with Xpeng to invest about $700 million in the Chinese EV maker in order to acquire about 4.99 percent of the latter.
Xpeng, VW ink joint sourcing program to reduce platform costs
