The headquarters of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province. (Photo/Niu Jing/China Daily)

Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding Ltd confirmed on Tuesday night that its co-founder Jack Ma, and chairman Joe Tsai have been aggressively buying the company's shares recently, signaling that they are full of confidence about Alibaba's development prospects.

Tsai has bought around $151 million worth of Alibaba's US-traded shares via his Blue Pool family fund, according to a document released by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 2023, the company said, Alibaba repurchased a total of 897.9 million ordinary shares, adding that the shares were bought on both the US and Hong Kong stock markets.

Alibaba emphasized that it has continued to repurchase shares for five consecutive years, demonstrating its firm confidence in the company's future development.

As of Dec 31, 2023, the remaining amount the company's board had authorized for its share buyback plan, which is effective through March 2025, was $11.7 billion, the company added.

The share repurchase move came after Jiang Fang, a partner and chief talent officer of Alibaba, said in the company's internal network in November that Ma did not sell a single share of the company, and will continue to hold Alibaba shares.

Source: China Daily

Editor: Xu Yuying