Charlie Munger's Daily Journal nearly doubles stake in China's Alibaba

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Daily Journal Corp (DJCO), the publishing and technology company in which Warren Buffett's longtime business partner Charlie Munger is chairman, said it has nearly doubled its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding (BABA).

The U.S. company raised its holding by 99.3% to 602,060 sponsored American Depository Shares as of Dec. 31, Daily Journal (DJCO) said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday, making the stake worth about $72 million as of Jan. 4.

Munger, 98, has long been bullish on China. The vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A) had previously praised the country's crackdown on Jack Ma's Ant Group, the fintech giant whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November 2020.

China's technology giants have come under heavy regulatory pressures and are grappling with major fines, with Alibaba (BABA) paying $2.75 billion for anti-monopoly violations.

Amid an onslaught of competition in the e-commerce space, a slowing economy and a regulatory crackdown, Alibaba's (BABA) U.S.-listed shares had in 2021 lost more than 48% of their value.

On Tuesday, the shares pared losses and closed down 0.7% at $119.56. (Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur)