JD.com founder Liu to get HK$2.1b in cash dividend

JD.com founder Richard Liu Qiangdong is expected to get HK$2.1 billion from the company’s first cash dividend since it went public on the Nasdaq in 2014.

The Beijing-based e-commerce giant said it had approved a special cash dividend of 63 US cents per ordinary share and US$1.26 per American depositary share. In total, dividend payouts would amount to about US$2 billion, the company said.

Liu, whose net worth is about US$13.7 billion, holds 433 million ordinary shares, or 13.8 per cent of the total shares, according to JD.com’s financial filing last year. Walmart holds 289 million ordinary shares, a 9.3 per cent stake.

Social media and video gaming juggernaut Tencent Holdings distributed most of its shares in JD.com as a special dividend to investors last December. Its stake subsequently fell to 2.3 per cent from 17 per cent. This has made Liu once again the largest shareholder of the company he founded in 1998.

The dividend comes as many of China’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs seek to cash out on investments in an increasingly volatile market amid regulatory crackdowns and pandemic-fuelled economic headwinds.

Sequoia Capital China, one of the country’s top venture capital investors, sold HK$6.23 billion worth of shares in on-demand delivery firm Meituan, according to stock exchange filings.

“Our board’s approval of the special dividend reflects our confidence in the company’s long-term growth potential and strong balance sheet, which allows us to pay the dividend to shareholders, while maintaining financial and operational flexibility to continue to grow our business over the long term,” Liu said.

Liu, who built his company up selling electronics out of a 43 sq ft stall in Beijing’s Zhongguancun, has made JD.com one of the country’s largest e-commerce platforms. It has since spawned two other successful companies, JD Logistics and JD Health, both of which went public in the past 18 months.

He also sold 3.8 million shares in JD Health on April 29 and a further 5 million shares on Tuesday, pulling in HK$440 million in total.