Alibaba’s (BABA) Jack Ma Is The Big Billionaire Winner Of This Year, Says Pimm Fox

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s founder and top executive, Jack Ma, is the biggest billionaire winner this year, Pimm Fox said in a discussion on Bloomberg’s Taking Stock.

“It was a very good year if your company held a record-breaking IPO. Of course, we’re talking about Alibaba’s Jack Ma. His fortune soared from $3.5 billion to nearly $30 billion,” Fox said.

Jack Ma made about $25.1 billion this year after his company’s record-setting debut at the New York Stock Exchange in September. This puts the former teacher’s net worth at about $28.7 billion, certainly far from his fortune when he set up Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) in his apartment in 1999.

The company’s offer was at $68 per share but the stock quickly rose to above $90 on its initial day. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) closed on Friday at $105.95 per share.

Trish Regan said that this is what happens when a successful company goes public. She said the company is probably the best e-commerce story in the world right now.

Cory Johnson added that another benefit Ma has gotten from his company going public in the U.S. is that he is now more liquid in more territories than when he held stocks of a company that was just in China. Furthermore, Ma is better able to borrow against his holdings in his company now that it’s listed in the New York Stock Exchange, he added.

Regan said that she thinks the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) story could be the power of China manifesting itself. It shows the potential of entrepreneurship in the country although the Bloomberg host was skeptical about capitalism fully blooming in a country that is not actually democratic.

The institutional investor with the biggest stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global which owned about 11.39 million shares of the electronic commerce giant by the end of the third quarter.