Jack Ma under fire over Alibaba cut

Jack Ma Yun was criticized by mainland netizens for lowering his shareholding of Alibaba listed in United States to 4.8 percent, as of July 2, cashing out US$10.18 billion (HK$79.4 billion), according to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ma is still the largest single shareholder.

Meanwhile, Japan SoftBank also lowered its shareholding of Alibaba to 24.9 percent. It is still the largest shareholder of Alibaba.

In other news, Chinese fintech giant Ant Group denied selling a business interest in India. This came after Reuters reported that Ant is considering selling its 30 percent stake in Indian digital payment processor Paytm amid tensions between China and India and a toughening competitive landscape,sources said.

Financial details of the possible transaction have not been firmed up and Ant, the Alibaba-backed payments-to-consumer credit behemoth, has not launched a formal sale process yet, four people told Reuters.

Paytm, which is also backed by SoftBank, among others, was valued at about US$16 billion during its latest private fund-raising round a year ago. At that valuation, Ant's stake in the Indian firm is worth about US$4.8 billion.

Both Ant and Paytm said that the information was incorrect.