Alibaba shares fell sharply in the market on Monday, falling below its initial public offering price for the first time since 2016.
The Chinese e-commerce giant’s U.S. depositary receipts recently fell 12.7 percent to $63.03, well below its initial public offering price of $68 in 2014.
The sell-off echoed a significant drop in Alibaba shares listed in Hong Kong on Monday. The decline in Hong Kong came after the end of a meeting in which Xi Jinping consolidated his control of China’s ruling Communist Party and the release of weak Chinese GDP data.
Alibaba ADRs last traded below $68 in 2016, after China’s stock market bubble burst. A multi-year bullish rally then began, peaking in October 2020 at $317.14.
Shortly thereafter, the company’s stock began to fall as Beijing halted the IPO of its financial-technology subsidiary Ant and launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba. These actions were followed by a widespread crackdown on China’s largest Internet companies.