Alibaba has unveiled a major shake-up of top executives and business units as the Chinese tech giant prepares to launch a secondary listing in Hong Kong.
Maggie Wu, chief financial officer, will now oversee strategic investments, a key area for the group which has its roots in ecommerce, but also boasts a portfolio of more than 100 investments. She will work alongside vice chairman, Joe Tsai, who now has responsibility for M&A, in a move that will bring investee companies more tightly into the ecosystem, Alibaba said in an internal memo on Tuesday.
As part of the restructuring Freshippo, the fresh groceries business known as Hema in Chinese, will be hived off into a stand-alone business. Freshippo is a marquee business for Alibaba and the apogee of its new retail model, which fuses online orders and delivery with bricks and mortar stores. The move leaves it ripe for a separate listing.