Alibaba’s $25 Billion Buyback Fails to Assuage Investors

(Bloomberg) — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. green-lit another $25 billion in stock repurchases, aiming to assuage investors concerned about the Chinese e-commerce pioneer’s growth as it faces new rivals such as PDD Holdings Inc.

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The internet company’s board approved the expansion of an existing buyback program that was already among the country’s largest, encompassing about $9.5 billion last year alone. But its shares fell as much as 6.1% in Hong Kong, in part because investors remain concerned about crumbling Chinese consumption and a drop in per-user spending.

Alibaba is still grappling with fundamental questions surrounding the once-dominant internet company — a barometer of Chinese demand. Its performance underscored a loss of market share to rivals such as PDD and ByteDance Ltd. It posted a lower-than-projected 5% rise in December quarter revenue to 260.3 billion yuan ($36.2 billion), well off the pace of previous years. Net income fell 70%.

Fueling the uncertainty, the company is going through a complicated multi-way split intended to create several independent businesses and rejuvenate the national icon. The company last year outlined plans to float its Freshippo grocery chain and Cainiao logistics arm, but Chairman Joseph Tsai on Wednesday backed away from those plans because challenging market conditions would prevent it from reaping fair value for those businesses. Alibaba — which after years of frenetic investment now controls a vast portfolio of assets — is now actively looking to sell off some of those non-core holdings, he added. It’s exploring ways to offload the InTime department store chain and other retail operations, Bloomberg News has reported.

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“We have a number of traditional physical retail businesses on our balance sheet. And these are not our core focus. It will make sense for us to exit these businesses,” Tsai told analysts on a conference call. “This will take time given the…