Netease's chairman sells $73 million of stock

The chairman and CEO of Chinese online game and portal operator Netease.com last night raised $73.16 million from the placement of 2 million American depositary shares, taking advantage of a doubling in the share price since late February.

The deal, which was arranged by UBS, was launched and completed before the US market opened and was done at a fixed price, perhaps to ensure a speedy execution. Chairman and CEO William Ding, who also founded the company in 1997, offered the 2 million ADSs, which correspond to 1.6% of the outstanding share capital and just about one day's worth of trading volume, at a 4% discount to the previous day's close of $38.10...