Billionaire investor David Tepper. — Bloomberg
BEIJING: Billionaire investor David Tepper is ramping up his stake in China-related stocks and exchange-traded funds in the last quarter, showing confidence in the world’s second-largest economy even as a stimulus-fuelled rally lost momentum.
The president and founder of Appaloosa Management LP, who made waves in September with a call to buy “everything” related to China, increased the firm’s holding of eCommerce company JD.com by roughly 43% in the fourth quarter, according to a filing released Monday.
The money manager also boosted his stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, another eCommerce giant, by 18%.
The stock remains the hedge fund’s largest holding, accounting for about 16% of its US$6.4bil portfolio.
The moves came amid a volatile stretch for Chinese stocks, when investors showed signs of wavering commitment after Beijing rolled out a stimulus blitz in late September.
The government’s efforts sparked a frenetic rally into early October, but the momentum faded in the following months amid disappointment over the scale of fiscal stimulus, a weak economic outlook and a property crisis.
Alibaba fell 20% in the fourth quarter, while JD.com declined 13%.
Tepper also added exposure to the KranShares CSI China Internet exchange-traded fund and to the iShares China Large-Cap exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as to KE Holdings Inc and Baidu Inc, the filing showed.
Chinese stocks and ETFs giving exposure to the country’s shares made up about 37% of his portfolio as of the end of December, in terms of market value, little changed from the previous quarter.
Tepper didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment.
China’s market has been on a stronger footing to start the year, with some of China’s equity benchmarks outperforming United States and European peers.
That’s in part because of China’s growing clout in the artificial-intelligence (AI) space, on the back of the success of DeepSeek’s AI model.
As a result, investors have been re-evaluating the nation’s beaten-down shares, although they’re also assessing the impact of US President Donald Trump’s move to slap 10% tariffs on China.
Alibaba, which is building its own AI model, has climbed nearly 30% since the start of the year.
The company may be able to manage the US-China trade war’s impact on revenue better than its Chinese rivals because its overseas operations are more geographically diverse, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. — Bloomberg
