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Alibaba appoints head of investment as CFO

Alibaba CFO Maggie Wu

China’s Alibaba Group announced its chief financial officer, Maggie Wu, will expand her current role at the e-commerce giant, as it looks to bolster its efforts on investment to offset growth slowdown.

SEE ALSO : Alibaba invests $100m in Russian e-commerce

The CFO since 2013, Wu will now oversee Alibaba’s strategic investments unit, as executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai relinquishes the responsibility. The changes are effective immediately.

Tsai will continue to support Wu in her new dual role, the firm said via its WeChat.

“To guarantee innovation, invest in our future, Alibaba is undertaking an organizational upgrade,” Alibaba said in a statement released by chief executive officer, Daniel Zhang.

Tsai sits on the board and has served on investment committees of Alibaba Group and affiliate Ant Financial. He joined the company in 1999. The management reshuffle comes ahead of co-founder Jack Ma’s pending retirement. Zhang will become chairman when Ma retires.

Earlier this month, Alibaba filed confidentially for a Hong Kong listing, sources told Reuters.

The e-commerce giant also said it plans to invest $100 million into a new Russian e-commerce joint venture with Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund.

For the January-March 2019 period, Alibaba revenues rose 51 percent year-on-year to 93.5 billion yuan ($13.6 billion), surpassing an average analyst estimate of 91.7 billion yuan compiled by Bloomberg News.

Net profit was 25.8 billion yuan, up more than three-fold compared to the same period a year earlier.

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Alibaba was named the world’s most valuable retail brand outside the US, according to rankings by global marketing and communications group WPP and research and consulting firm Kantar.