China’s JD.com CEO joins billionaire charity rush with $2.3 billion share pledge


The move comes as China tightens scrutiny on its tech sector, including JD.com (JD) and rival Alibaba (BABA), as part of President Xi Jinping’s “common prosperity” drive to ease inequality in the world’s second-largest economy.

Liu will give away about 62.4 million Class B ordinary JD shares, the company disclosed in a filing, without specifying the third-party foundation receiving the donation.

American depository shares in JD, each representing two ordinary shares of the company, closed at $75.08 on Tuesday and were last trading down nearly 1.9% on Wednesday.

Other big Chinese tech leaders who have ramped up charitable donations amid the government crackdown include ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, who pledged 500 million yuan ($78.61 million) to the Chinese city of Longyan for education.

According to a filing in June last year, food delivery giant Meituan’s founder and chief executive, Wang Xing, said he would donate shares worth about $2.27 billion to his personal charity.

In April 2021, tech giant Tencent (TCEHY) said it would invest 50 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) in environmental and social initiatives amid regulatory scrutiny from antitrust regulators.



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