Alibaba to split business into six main units, each to explore fundraising, IPOs

 

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Alibaba Group is planning to split its business into six main units covering e-commerce, media and the cloud, the e-commerce giant said on Tuesday, adding that each of the units will explore fundraising or IPOs.

The six units will include Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Group, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group, it said, adding that each of the six units will be managed by its own CEO and board of directors.

Daniel Zhang will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, which will follow a holding company management model, the company said.

Zhang will also serve as CEO of Cloud Intelligence Group, as previously announced.

“Alibaba is a company is a company with diverse businesses. Looking at large listed companies around the world, there are very few with such diverse and extensive businesses as ours,” Zhang said in an internal Q&A video on how to understand the statement that “business groups with the conditions may have the possibility of going public”. 

Instead of putting diverse businesses into one pot and presenting them through a single listing vehicle, it would be better to let them face the capital market independently, said Zhang.

“When a group is mature enough to meet the conditions for market acceptance, it will go public,” he said.