George Soros, Son Jonathan Both Betting On China

Chinese online retail giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) also attracted both Soros Fund Management and JS Capital to take up positions in it stock. The elder Soros held a total of 4.44 million shares of the company with a market value of $369.97 million, while his son held 54,955 shares of the company valued at $4.57 million. The company got a lot of cash from its $25 billion initial public offering and ended up investing some of that into several corporate ventures. Among other things, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is set to launch a video streaming service, which is modeled on Netflix. The company also launched an online bank, MYbank, a few days ago through one of its affiliates, a strategic step to capture small businesses in China that have been underserved by traditional banks. A total of 86 hedge funds out of the more than 700 that we tracked were invested in the stock at the end of the first quarter, down from 90 at the end of the previous quarter. A few of these were billionaire Rob Citrone‘s Discovery Capital Management with 8.77 million shares, and billionaire Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global with 6.94 million shares.

At the end of the first quarter of 2015, Soros Fund Management and JS Capital were also both invested in Ctrip.com International, Ltd.  (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP), a China-based online travel booking services company. According to the two funds’ 13F filings, Soros Fund Management held a total of 555,000 shares of the company valued at $32.53 million, while JS Capital held 40,000 shares with a market value of $2.35 million. The company has been facing a fierce e-travel battle with its competitors in China, such as eLong, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:LONG) and Qunar Cayman Islands Ltd (NASDAQ:QUNR). However, in the first quarter of 2015, the company showed great progress that brought some level of confidence to it and its investors. Ctrip.com International, Ltd.  (ADR) (NASDAQ:CTRP) posted revenue growth of 46%, with all three of its segments (Accommodations, Transportation, and Packaged Tours) all registering revenue growth. The growth is attributed to the company’s investment in an online booking app, which has led to enormous growth in bookings, hitting 800 million in its most recent reporting period. The management has, for the current quarter, given revenue growth guidance of between 45 and 50%. A total of 45 hedge funds out of the more than 700 that we track were invested in the stock at the end of the first quarter, up from 38 at the end of the last quarter of 2014. Billionaire Daniel S. Och emerged as the biggest shareholder among them with 4.64 million shares, followed by Lei Zhang’s Hillhouse Capital Management, which held 4.26 million shares.

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