Alibaba Group Holding has registered an additional one billion American depositary shares with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in a move that could facilitate SoftBank Group Corp.’s selling of its stake in the American market.
The registration allows an easier selling of ordinary shares, especially those that have never been registered with the Commission, Bloomberg reported citing analysts from Citi.
Japan’s SoftBank owns 5.39 billion ordinary shares of Alibaba, or a 24.8 percent stake, which hasn’t been previously registered with US regulators, according to the investment banking group Citi.
The move has also led to a drop in Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares by 5.7 percent on Monday.
The move comes as tech stock sell-off looms across Asia, with a turbulent market hitting Softbank’s portfolio, making it trade at its lowest price since March 2020, where stocks dropped as much as 9.8 percent in Tokyo.
SoftBank reports earnings are set to be released on Feb. 8.