George Soros' Fund Sells Majority Of Shares In China Tech Companies Alibaba, Baidu

Billionaire financier George Soros' fund sold the majority of its stake in Chinese Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. in the second quarter, according to regulatory findings cited by media reports.

Soros Fund Management LLC sold 4.39 million Alibaba shares, leaving the fund with 59,320, and sold 358,650 shares in Baidu, leaving it with 42,800 as of March 31, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Soros fund, which now only invests for George Soros, controls over $30 billion in investments.

The sale reduces the fund's dollar investment in Alibaba from around $370 million at the end of the first quarter, to around $4.9 million as of June 30.

Soros was not the only major player in U.S. investment circles who limited his exposure to some Chinese tech stocks during the period. Coatue Management sold 2.2 million shares of Baidu -- roughly 74 percent of its stake -- in the quarter that ended June 30. In the same period, Tiger Global Management sold 6.6 million shares of Alibaba, almost its entire stake in the Chinese online shopping platform, according to a New York Times report.

The fund also bought a new stake in Time Warner Cable Inc., making the company its second-largest U.S. stock holding, Bloomberg reported.

Alibaba's share price reached historic highs in November, two months after its initial public offering on Wall Street. The company, however, has since lost 37 percent, or around $100 billion, of its value.

Alibaba's latest quarterly results, published this week, showed a more pronounced slowdown than expected in sales growth, disappointing Wall Street, according to Agence France-Presse.

China's economy has been slowing in recent years, after a prolonged period of phenomenal growth. In recent weeks, the country's stock market has experienced extreme volatility, prompting government intervention to curb what it deemed as questionable practices.