by Josh Horwitz, Kane Wu and Julie Zhu
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Alibaba Group said on Thursday it was considering divesting non-core assets and relinquishing control of certain businesses as the Chinese tech giant embarked on a major restructuring.
The conglomerate plans to split its business into six main units, ranging from e-commerce to cloud computing, which may eventually raise funds or go public (IPO).
“Alibaba will be more of an asset and capital manager than a business operator,” Group CEO Daniel Zhang said on a conference call with investors on Thursday.
Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu said the group would “continue to assess the strategic importance” of the companies created as part of the overhaul and “would decide whether or not to retain control of them.”
On the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Alibaba shares rose more than 2% on Thursday after jumping 12% the day before.
Toby Xu said each new entity could independently decide whether to raise funds and initiate an IPO “when ready”.
Alibaba will, however, decide whether the group wishes to retain control of each entity after they go public.
At the same time, the group plans to sell non-strategic assets to optimize its capital structure, said the financial director.
Alibaba, whose valuation once reached more than 800 billion dollars, saw its market capitalization fall to 260 billion after the launch, at the end of 2020, of a regulatory offensive by the Chinese authorities on the technology sector.
(Reporting Josh Horwitz in Shanghai, Julie Zhu and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; written by Sumeet Chatterjee; Blandine Hénault for the , editing by Matthieu Protard)
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