CHINA-ECONOMY: PRINCELINGS
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In September 2012, the Alibaba Group announced that it had concluded a US$ 7.6 billion deal -- described as the largest private financing deal in the history of China -- to buy back half of Yahoo's stake in it. The e-commerce company raised part of the money by selling shares to select investors, notably China’s sovereign wealth fund and three prominent Chinese investment firms. The New York Times on July 21, 2014, published an expose detailing the deep political connections of the investment firms namely, Boyu Capital, Citic Capital Holdings and CDB Capital, the China Development Bank’s private investment arm.
Their senior executive ranks include sons or grandsons of the most powerful members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The New York Times also shows that the fourth investor who bought Alibaba shares that month, namely New Horizon Capital, is a private equity firm co-founded by the son of Wen Jiabao, who was China’s Premier at the time.
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