Operator of Alipay switches CEO ahead of listing
Eric Jing to take over from Lucy Peng who remains as executive chairwoman of Ant Financial online payments system ahead of its Hong Kong listing next year
Alibaba Group’s financial affiliate has appointed a new chief executive officer as it prepares for a highly anticipated 2017 initial public offering.
Ant Financial Services Group named finance veteran and president Eric Jing to take the helm from Lucy Peng, who retains her role as executive chairwoman, according to an emailed statement from the company on Saturday.
The management shuffle comes as Ant Financial is said to plan an IPO in Hong Kong next year, which could be one of the city’s biggest debuts since 2010. Since its inception as the operator of Alipay, Ant Financial – an online payments system with 450 million active users – has expanded into wealth management, credit scoring and peer-to-peer lending.
Peng had in the past six years been “a rock-steady presence in the face of changing times” and would now focus on developing the company’s long-term global strategy, Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba which owns the South China Morning Post and controls Ant Financial, said in an internal memo. Jing “will lead the Ant Team to new heights, to new surprises.”
Ant Financial, whose Alipay also forms the financial backbone of China’s largest e-commerce service, is worth at least US$75 billion, according to CLSA, a Hong Kong-based brokerage and investment group . The company has said repeatedly it has set neither a timeline nor a destination for a listing.