Richard Liu, founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc., is donating billions of dollars of stock to charity, the latest member of the country’s business elite to make a big donation amid government crackdown on China’s technology . Area.
Mr Liu plans to donate 62.4 million shares to a third-party charitable organization, the Beijing-based company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
US-traded shares of JD.com closed Tuesday at $75.08. Each of these so-called American depository receipts represents two underlying shares in the company, the value of which Mr. Liu plans to donate at approximately $2.34 billion.
The company revealed the move on the second day of the Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated across China. ADRs were down 1.4% as the US markets opened on Wednesday.
Since Mr. Liu founded JD in 2004 as an online sales platform for electronics, the company has grown into an e-commerce titan with more than $100 billion in annual revenue. In September, JD named its first corporate president, for Mr. Liu – also known by the Chinese name Liu Qiandong – to step back from day-to-day business.
China’s biggest internet companies are facing widespread scrutiny by Beijing officials over issues ranging from antitrust to national-security concerns. Concurrently, a growing number of Liu’s peers among the country’s top tech executives are donating some of their wealth, often in the form of stock.
Last year, Meituan founder Wang Jing and Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun both made large donations. Mr. Wang, whose company runs a delivery platform, donated more than $2 billion worth of shares in Meituan to his charitable foundation. The donation value of Mr. Lei’s shares in the smartphone and consumer-electronics company Xiaomi was approximately $2.2 billion.
In 2020, Pinduoduo Inc. Founder of Colin Huang and his founding team gave a 2.37% stake in the company to a philanthropic vehicle. Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance Ltd., has also donated tens of millions of dollars to charitable causes.
Analysts say the donation could be a reaction to a move by the Chinese government against the power of the country’s biggest tech companies. One of the aims of the government’s program is to reduce the country’s wealth gap.
Other high-profile companies in China’s tech sector, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Didi Global Inc., have been subject to Beijing’s efforts to make companies do more for the Communist Party’s economic, social and national service. security goal.
Government actions against big tech companies have included disrupting initial public offerings, launching investigations and issuing fines.
This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed
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