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Ma Dongmin reduced his holdings in Baidu.
Recently, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU, 09888.HK) issued an announcement on the proposed reduction of related parties, showing that Ma Dongmin reduced his holdings of 260,000 shares of Baidu shares, worth $22.4146 million, and the "approximate sale date" shown in the announcement was July 1. This is the first time that Ma Dongmin has reduced his holdings of Baidu shares this year, and the announcement did not mention the specific reason for the reduction.
Baidu did not respond to Ma Dongmin's reduction. At the close, Baidu's Hong Kong stock rose 0.63% to HK$87.700 per share.
Ma Dongmin is the wife of Robin Li, the founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu. According to public information, Ma Dongmin went abroad at the age of 19 after graduating from the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China, and in 1995, Robin Li met Ma Dongmin at a gathering of Chinese students in New York, when Ma Dongmin was studying for a doctorate in biology at the University of New Jersey in United States. CCTV reported that in 1999, Ma Dongmin decided to let Robin Li return to China to start a business, and he continued to develop in United States, so that even if Robin Li failed to start a business, Ma Dongmin's income could still support his family. After Robin Li's successful venture, Ma Dongmin served as Robin Li's special assistant, responsible for Baidu's investment, human resources, and marketing public relations.
According to foreign media reports, in 2023, Ma Dongmin has repeatedly reduced his holdings of Baidu shares, worth more than 200 million US dollars, and after several reductions in recent years, his shareholding has dropped to 3.2%. In addition to Ma Dongmin, in 2023, Baidu will also be reduced dozens of times by related parties, including Shen Dou, executive vice president of Baidu and president of the Intelligent Cloud Division, and the cumulative value of Baidu's shares reduced by Shen Dou in 2023 is about 11.73 million US dollars.
In March 2024, Baidu's 2023 annual report disclosed that Robin Li held a total of about 512 million ordinary shares in Baidu, with a shareholding ratio of about 18.2% and voting rights of 59.3%, making him Baidu's largest shareholder and actual controller.
The annual report also disclosed that the total number of Class A and Class B ordinary shares held by Ma Dongmin was about 89.54 million shares, with a voting right of 11.4%.
On May 16, Baidu released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024, with a total revenue of 31.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1%; Net profit attributable to Baidu (Non-GAAP) was 7.011 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%. Among them, Baidu Core (that is, a combination of search services and transaction services) revenue was 23.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4%; The net profit attributable to Baidu's core (Non-GAAP) was 6.628 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26%, both exceeding market expectations.
According to the financial report, since the beginning of the first quarter of 2024, Baidu has returned $229 million to shareholders, bringing the cumulative repurchase amount of the 2023 share repurchase program to $898 million. In February 2023, Baidu announced that its board of directors had authorized a new share repurchase program, under which the company could repurchase up to $5 billion of shares, valid until December 31, 2025.
As of March 31, 2024, Baidu's cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments were 191.8 billion yuan, and cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments excluding iQiyi were 185.8 billion yuan. Free cash flow was $4.2 billion, excluding iQIYI's free cash flow of $3.3 billion.