Temasek, PIF sell Alibaba shares as sovereign funds tweak portfolios

Two of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds have adjusted their stakes in Chinese equities, trimming their exposure to technology stocks while going long on consumer companies as they mirrored Bridgewater Associates in reacting to volatile markets and rising US-China tensions.

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings cut its stake in Alibaba Group Holding by two-thirds to 1.85 million shares in the quarter that ended in June, according to its 13F disclosure on Thursday. It slashed its JD.com holdings by 87 per cent to 589,256 shares, cut NetEase by 38 per cent to 1.45 million shares and pared H World Group by 8 per cent to 6.24 million shares.

Temasek went long on PDD Holdings, increasing its stake in the Pinduoduo discount e-commerce platform by 28 per cent. It raised its investments in Yum China, which operates the KFC and Pizza Hut franchises in the country, by 30 per cent. It invested in some companies for the first time, buying 1.23 million shares of the real estate brokerage KE Holdings and 1.19 million shares of the electric vehicle maker Xpeng.

The tweaks shrank the value of Temasek’s portfolio of 12 US-traded Chinese stocks by more than a third, or US$699.3 million, to US$1.32 billion at the end of June, based on the Post’s calculations. The value of the Singapore sovereign fund’s equity portfolio of 131 stocks grew 4.4 per cent to US$26 billion in June, from the previous quarter.

JD.com’s booth at AWE2024 in Shanghai on March 14, 2024. Photo: Getty Images

Temasek was not alone in selling the shares of Alibaba, which owns this newspaper. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) sold all 1.61 million Alibaba shares that it owns in one of China’s largest technology companies at the end of June for US$212 million, according to its 13F disclosure.

South China Morning Post