The chairman of private equity firm Primavera Group, which counts China s Ant Group among its portfolio companies, believes the financial technology giant s founder Jack Ma is safe and sound , and said that he remains optimistic about the company. The comments by Fred Hu come as Chinese regulators are investigating e-commerce giant Alibaba and its affiliate Ant after abruptly cancelling the latter s initial public offering (IPO) in November last year. Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who also controls Ant, has not been seen in public since Ant s IPO debacle. I believe he is safe and sound. He remains an enduring example of a successful entrepreneurship, Hu said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference on Wednesday, without elaborating.
He and his company misappropriated $7m in client money via real estate investments
Eric Malley and MG Capital Management have been charged by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) with defrauding retail investors in two real estate funds.
According to the regulator’s complaint, Malley was a licenced real estate broker with no investment expertise and MG Capital solicited investments in two property funds, namely MG Capital management Residential Funds III and IV.
They managed to raise $58m (£43m, €47m) based on a fabricated strong investment track record.
The SEC alleges that, while marketing funds III and IV, Malley and MG Capital falsely claimed they had previously managed two highly successful real estate funds with a combined portfolio value of $1.18bn, which significantly outperformed the S&P 500 Index over a 10-year period.
SoftBank Sells $2 Billion in Uber Stock as Rides Recover
Bloomberg 1/12/2021 Pavel Alpeyev and Takahiko Hyuga
(Bloomberg) SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund sold about $2 billion in Uber Technologies Inc. stock after a rally in the ride-hailing giant’s shares, signaling it may cash in more gains from the sector in the future.
An affiliate of the investment fund called SB Cayman 2 sold 38 million shares on Jan. 7 at an average price of $53.46, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. SoftBank still holds about 184.2 million shares, according to the filing, worth about $10 billion at current prices.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son was an aggressive investor in the ride-hailing sector, taking major stakes in Uber, China’s Didi Chuxing, India’s Ola and Southeast Asia’s Grab. Those wagers looked in jeopardy when Uber stumbled after its 2019 initial public offering and the coronavirus pandemic slammed demand.