Alibaba Jack Ma will unveil his succession plan next week, remains president

By Cate Cadell and Ryan Woo

BEIJING (Reuters) – The co-founder of billionaire Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Jack Ma, will announce on Monday a succession plan to entrust the reins of his vast empire to a new generation of leaders, but will remain for the moment executive chairman.

Ma will announce his plan for his 54th birthday and the devolution strategy will extend over a significant period of time, reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP) newspaper quoting a company spokesman.

Alibaba declined to comment but pointed to SCMP's story when asked about Ma's projects.

Ma, who co-founded Alibaba in 1999, stepped down as CEO in 2013. He is currently the international face of the company at major political and commercial events.

The New York Times reported Friday that Ma would retire from the e-commerce firm on Monday, the former English professor seeking to focus on philanthropy in education.

China's third richest person with a net worth of $ 36.6 billion, according to Forbes magazine, said Ma, quoted by the New York Times, that his retirement was not the end of an era.

Although Ma's plan to phase out is a milestone, industry analysts and professionals have stated that it is unlikely that his involvement would change significantly.

"I do not think that means much, frankly, four or five years ago, he retired from the role of CEO and made a very specific comment about the willingness of young people to lead the company. "said Kevin Carter, founder of The Emerging Markets Internet Exchange Fund.

Ma oversees a number of charitable projects in the areas of education and the environment. It is a cult figure of China's Internet industry and has attracted a large number of entrepreneurs and pop culture. At events, he often meets screaming fans.

TRICKY TIME

Ma maintains an important international profile, frequently inviting world leaders to Hangzhou headquarters. Last year he met with US President Donald Trump, who described him as "intelligent" and "open-minded".

Alibaba was founded by 18 people led by Ma. China's largest e-commerce company now has more than 66,000 full-time employees, showed the company's latest annual ranking.

The company had a market value of about $ 420 billion at Friday. My control also includes Ant Financial, which was valued at about $ 150 billion after a recent fundraiser.

Succession plans are coming at a difficult time for Chinese technology companies. Authorities have increasingly sought to regulate the sector where Alibaba and its main competitor, Tencent Holdings Ltd, are fighting for consumers.

Trade tensions are also a new challenge for Chinese technology companies, especially those that, like Alibaba, are growing rapidly overseas.

This year, regulators have reduced Money Money International's money transfer service by $ 2 billion to Ant Financial for national security reasons related to "geopolitical" changes.

Ma's decision also comes as US police investigate an allegation of rape against Richard Liu, chief of the electronic commerce rival JD.com Inc., who has hammered out his actions.

Liu was arrested and released without charge in Minneapolis last week. Through his lawyers, he has denied any wrongdoing.

Liu is president and CEO of JD.com, and the incident has scared investors because the company does not have a clear succession plan.

(Report by Cate Cadell and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Manas Mishra in Bangalore, written by Adam Jourdan, edited by Leslie Adler and Jason Neely)