Singapore Government's Temasek and GIC buy $1 billion in Alibaba stock

A day after Japanese investor SoftBank announced its plan to offload $7.9 billion in Alibaba stock, Singapore-based state fund Temasek Holdings and wealth fund GIC bought $1 billion worth of shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant.

Of this $500 million worth of shares were acquired by Gamlight Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GIC, and another $500 million worth of shares to Aranda Investments Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings. The sales were part of a private placement of a set of the shares that SoftBank Group was selling were sold at $74.00 per share.

Post the completion of these transactions, SoftBank Group will continue to hold approximately 28 percent of Alibaba’s total shares. SoftBank Group first invested in Alibaba in 2000 and held 32.2 percent of Alibaba’s share as of March 31, 2016.

SoftBank’s Chairman and CEO, Masayoshi Son, will remain a board director of Alibaba, and Alibaba’s Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, will remain a board director of SoftBank Group.

The Alibaba ordinary shares would be eligible for resale under Rule 144 following a six-month holding period applicable to Temasek and GIC.

Temasek in September 2011 invested $50 million in Alibaba Group and in February 2015 sold 7.3 million shares in Alibaba Group Holding as the Chinese e-commerce firm’s shares rallied post it’s IPO in September.

Founded in 1974, Temasek owns a $266 billion portfolio. Its portfolio covers sectors like financial services, telecommunications, media and technology, transportation and industrial, life sciences, consumer, real estate, and energy and resources. Indian startups have also in recent years attracted the attention of Temasek and it has invested in companies like Snapdeal, Zomato, CarTrade, CarDekho and Firstcry.

Previously known as Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, GIC Private Limited is a sovereign wealth fund founded in 1981. It invests internationally in equities, fixed income, money-market instruments, real estate and special investments. This year, Gurgaon-based ShopClues, which has joined Unicorn club, raised funding from GIC. In January this year, it has invested in Bengaluru-based Little Internet, which owns Deals discovery app Little.

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