What’s new: Daily Journal Corp., a newspaper and software company that had long been chaired by billionaire investor Charlie Munger, unloaded half of its holdings in e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in the first quarter, according to exchange filings.
The Los Angeles-based firm held 300,000 of Alibaba’s American depositary shares (ADSs), which were worth $32.6 million at the end of March, down from 602,060 ADSs at the end of 2021, which had been worth $71.5 million, according to a Daily Journal filing on Monday to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a past filing.
The background: The 98-year-old Munger is best known as fellow billionaire Warren Buffet’s longtime right-hand man at investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc., where he is vice chairman.
Daily Journal cut its holdings as Alibaba in February reported that its fourth-quarter net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders fell 74% year-on-year.
In March, after the SEC named five Chinese companies that could be booted from American stock exchanges for failing to meet audit requirements, U.S.-traded Chinese stocks went into a tailspin. Alibaba’s ADSs are down about 16% this year.
Related: In Depth: Chinese Stocks’ Wild Ride
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