Alibaba’s Jack Ma resurfaces after months out of public view

The appearance was his first since regulators began clamping down on his business empire.

Jack Ma, the CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Picture: AFP

Embattled billionaire Jack Ma made his first public appearance in nearly three months, speaking via a video link at a philanthropic event on Wednesday, according to a Chinese media report.

Spokespersons for the Jack Ma Foundation and Ant Group, the financial-technology giant that Mr Ma controls, confirmed the report.

“Jack Ma participated in the online ceremony of the annual Rural Teacher Initiative event on January 20,” the billionaire’s foundation said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.

Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares jumped on the news and were up 6 per cent in Wednesday afternoon trade.

The event saw Mr Ma addressing 100 village teachers receiving accolades from the foundation. The ceremony was usually held annually in Sanya, a resort town in southern China, Mr Ma said on the video.

Another video embedded in the same Chinese media report showed Mr Ma on what it said was a recent visit to a primary school in Tonglu county, near Hangzhou, where Ant and its affiliate Alibaba Group are based. It didn’t specify when Mr Ma, who was shown wearing a black cap and padded winter jacket, visited the school.

It was the first time Mr Ma appeared in public since October 24, when the founder of Alibaba and controlling shareholder of Ant made a controversial speech at a financial forum in Shanghai, criticising regulators for stifling financial and technological innovation.

His comments infuriated China’s leadership and led President Xi Jinping to personally decide to pull the plug on blockbuster initial public offerings that Ant was close to completing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Days after his speech, four Chinese regulators summoned Mr Ma and Ant’s top two executives to a closed-door meeting in early November. Ant was forced to call off its IPOs that had been on track to raise more than $US34bn and value the financial-technology giant at more than $US300bn.

Mr Ma has kept a low profile since then, sparking widespread speculation over his whereabouts.

Alibaba, along with a few other internet and e-commerce companies, have also recently come under scrutiny from China’s antitrust regulators. Chinese officials in late December launched an investigation into alleged anticompetitive practices on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms.