Weekly News Wrap: Alibaba’s Jack Ma lying low; Flipkart and Amazon challenges India’s antitrust probe resumption 

And Bukalapak seeks $800m in an IPO.

From CNBC:

Alibaba founder Jack Ma is staying out of the limelight, focusing his efforts on hobbies and philanthropy, according to a company executive.

“He’s lying low right now, I talk to him every day,” Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice chairman, said Tuesday in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “He’s actually doing very, very well. He’s taken up painting as a hobby, it’s actually pretty good.”

The billionaire founder has had a rocky year with the Chinese government, leading to time out of the public eye.

Read more here.

From Reuters:

Walmart’s Flipkart and Amazon have filed legal challenges against the resumption of an antitrust investigation into their business practices, according to sources and a legal filing viewed by Reuters.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) launched an investigation in January 2020 after a complaint accused Flipkart and Amazon of promoting select sellers on their e-commerce platforms and using deep discounts to stifle competition.

The companies have denied wrongdoing and near-immediate legal challenges from the pair stalled the investigation for more than a year until a court last week ruled it could resume, having dismissed arguments that the CCI lacked evidence.

The fresh appeal from Flipkart filed on June 16, argues that decision by the Karnataka court to allow the probe to resume was erroneous and must be put on hold.

"Irreparable injury will be caused to the appellant if the investigation was to continue pending the present appeal," the Flipkart filing, which was not made public but has been viewed by Reuters, said.

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From Reuters:

Indonesian e-commerce firm Bukalapak is keen to raise as much as $800m in an IPO in August, two people with knowledge of the matter said, the first of two big tech listings in Jakarta this year that will add long-sought lustre to the local bourse.

A mid-year debut could see it become Indonesia's biggest listing in 10 years and the largest ever for the country by a startup. But those milestones will likely later be overtaken by the planned listing of GoTo—a new company to be formed by the merger of e-commerce rival Tokopedia and ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek.

Tapping a sharp pickup in investor interest in Southeast Asia's technology sector, Bukalapak, the country's fourth biggest e-commerce firm, is aiming to sell 10-15% of the company and wants a valuation of between $4-5b, the people said.

A confidential listing prospectus has been submitted to the Indonesia stock exchange, one of the sources added.

Read more here.