Alibaba puts CFO in charge of investments in major business reshuffle

This article is more than 12 months old

Jun 19, 2019 06:00 am

BEIJING/SHANGHAI : China's Alibaba Group yesterday unveiled its most significant business reshuffle since co-founder Jack Ma announced his pending retirement.

Chief financial officer Maggie Wu will oversee Alibaba's strategic investments unit, taking over that responsibility from executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai, who will support Ms Wu in her expanded role, the firm said.

The change comes as Alibaba invests in new business lines such as cloud computing as a boom in its core e-commerce has peaked and revenue growth slows. It was reported last month that the firm is considering raising as much as US$20 billion (S$27 billion) through a listing in Hong Kong to boost funds available for investment.

"To guarantee innovation, invest in our future, Alibaba is undertaking an organisational upgrade," the company said in a statement signed by chief executive officer Daniel Zhang, who will become chairman when Mr Ma retires on Sept 10.

The changes became effective yesterday, Alibaba said.

In its statement yesterday, Alibaba also said its supermarket division, Freshippo, will become a standalone business.