Alibaba co-founder Cai Chongxin's family office liquidates more than 30 company stocks
Alibaba Group co-founder Cai Chongxin’s family office and investment company Blue Pool Capital is rapidly withdrawing from the US stock market and increasingly focusing on the private market. Blue Pool Capital is responsible for managing part of Cai Chongxin's wealth. Regulatory filings show that Blue Pool has liquidated more than 30 U.S.-listed companies since it began last year, most of them tech companies, including Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Twitter, and more. As of the end of June this year, the only U.S. stock held by Blue Pool Capital was asset management company Blue Owl Capital, but its shareholding ratio has dropped from 14% in December last year to 9.8%. Meanwhile, Blue Pool Capital has invested in more than 10 unlisted startups globally since the beginning of 2021, covering sports, blockchain, and healthcare.
As rising interest rates, slowing economic growth and widespread inflation hit U.S. tech stocks, Blue Pool is changing the way it allocates Tsai's wealth. Technology stocks were once a major component of the Cai Chongxin family office's public portfolio. Many wealthy investors have turned to private assets, which are less liquid but whose valuations are generally less susceptible to market volatility.
Family office
Cai Chongxin, 58, is the executive vice chairman of Alibaba and the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, an NBA team. His net worth is $6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In 1999, Cai Chongxin quit his job at an investment company with an annual salary of $700,000 to join Alibaba with a monthly salary of only $50. He soon began raising capital from global investors, helping Alibaba become the giant it is today.
In 2004, Cai Chongxin and Alexander West co-founded Blue Pool Capital. The firm invests in public companies and private equity, hedge funds, and real estate, and is led by former Castle Investments executive Oliver Weisberg. Weisberg is also responsible for Blue Pool's other U.S. sports investments, such as WNBA teams New York Liberty and Los Angeles FC. Blue Pool recently secured a $71.5 million mortgage from JPMorgan Chase for $188 million for a Manhattan penthouse previously owned by billionaire Dan Och.
In China, Blue Pool Fund has backed a private equity fund launched by local Chinese investment firm Hanergy Investment Group, which has taken stakes in Chinese companies including oral health care company Rier Group.
Blue Pool Capital first disclosed its total U.S. equity holdings in early 2018. At the end of 2017, the company held shares in 34 companies worth $211.5 million. At the end of March 2021, the company still held stakes in more than 30 companies. Shortly after, investment giants Owl Rock Capital and Dyal Capital Partners merged, making asset manager Blue Owl the family office's largest U.S. listed asset.