‘US$1B ALIBABA GAINS
Govt investment arm sitting on unrealised gains of US$1.4b from investments in 25 tech companies, says Azman
ZARINA ZAKARIAH
KUALA LUMPUR zarinaz@mediaprima.com.my
KHAZANAH Nasional Bhd has reinvested US$1 billion (RM4.23 billion) in gains made from its investment in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group into 25 technology companies locally and abroad.
Khazanah managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said it was also sitting on unrealised gains of US$1.4 billion from its investments in those companies.
The government investment arm reportedly made close to US$1 billion from its investment in Alibaba, which was listed in September 2014.
Azman said in its role as a strategic investment agency, Khazanah had actively been investing in technology companies globally.
On average, Khazanah evaluated up to 50 companies a year for investments, but it usually did not invest in more than 20 a year in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare.
“We have unrealised gains from our investments in Alibaba of US$1 billion, of which we have reinvested into 25 technology firms locally and abroad, including deep technology firms such as Blippar and Fractal Analytics.
“It is a continuous process,” he said at the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2017, here, yesterday.
The global forum, themed “Cerebrum X Algorithm: Building True Value in a Post-Truth World”, was attended by almost 1,000 participants with 40 speakers from 14 countries.
Azman said while companies such as Telekom Malaysia Bhd, Axiata Group Bhd, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd were doing well, they needed to be conscious of the technological trends because the whole industry was getting disrupted.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Group executive vice-chairman Joseph C. Tsai said businesses needed to constantly disrupt themselves to keep up with the market.
“Alibaba is a disruptor, so we have to look for ways to disrupt ourselves. Consumer expectations are constantly changing and growing,” Tsai was quoted as saying at the forum.