Alibaba considers yielding control of some businesses
Alibaba Group said on Thursday it will look to monetise non-core assets and consider giving up control of some businesses, as the tech conglomerate reinvents itself. Group CEO Daniel Zhang said the company's breakup into separate businesses will allow its units to become more agile and eventually launch their own initial public offerings. His comments come two days after Alibaba announced the largest restructuring in the company's history, which will see it change into a holding company structure with six business units, each with their own boards and CEOs. "Alibaba will be more of the nature of an asset and capital operator than a business operator, in relation to the business group companies," Zhang told investors on a conference call on Thursday. On the same call, Alibaba CFO Toby Xu said the group would "continue to evaluate the strategic importance of these companies" and "decide whether or not to continue to retain control". Alibaba's indication that it could divest from assets and sell control of business units after they go public comes more than two years after Beijing tightened regulations on tech giants, and targeted monopolistic practices, and data security protection. While the new business units will have their own CEOs and boards, Alibaba will retain seats on those boards in the short-term, Zhang added. The group's Hong Kong-listed shares opened 2.7 percent higher after the investor call and following a 12 percent jump on Wednesday. (Reuters)