Daniel Zhang, former CEO of Alibaba, joined the private equity fund and partnered with Liu Xiaodan, the "queen of mergers and acquisitions".
Daniel Zhang, former chairman and CEO of Alibaba, joined Morning One Fund, a private equity fund in China.
On March 21, Morning One Investment's official WeChat post said that Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi), former chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, will join Morning One Fund and serve as the managing partner together with founder Liu Xiaodan to explore the new future of M&A funds.
According to the data, Daniel Zhang is still one of the partners of Alibaba Group. On March 28, 2023, Daniel Zhang, then Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, issued an all-staff letter announcing the launch of the "1+6+N" organizational transformation. Under Alibaba Group, six major business groups and a number of business companies will be established, and qualified business groups and companies will have the possibility of independent financing and listing. In June of the same year, Daniel Zhang announced that he would step down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group and become the chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group.
Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi), former chairman and CEO of Alibaba.
However, in September, Alibaba abruptly announced that Daniel Zhang would withdraw from core management, and Daniel Zhang resigned as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, which will be held by Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming. At that time, Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai presented Daniel Zhang with the "Meritorious Ali Ren" and said that Alibaba would invest US$1 billion to support Daniel Zhang in setting up a future-oriented technology fund to "help Alibaba lay out future technology and create a better ecological environment".
In the press release of the Morning One Fund, he was still introduced by Daniel Zhang's nickname "Xiaoyaozi" in Alibaba, but did not explain whether the Morning One Fund and Alibaba would jointly invest in the future.
"I am very happy to be a business partner with Xiaodan. It is hoped that through the dynamic and innovative platform of Chenyi, we will focus on the huge opportunities of industrial transformation and value chain reshaping brought about by technological development and economic transformation and upgrading, based on China and looking at the world, integrating the capabilities and resources of both parties in enterprise management, industrial operation and capital market, and building the core competitiveness of M&A investment for the future. Daniel Zhang said.
Liu Xiaodan said, "I am honored to cooperate with Xiaoyaozi, and I believe that his joining will further strengthen the team's professional capabilities, expand the overall vision, and accelerate the upgrading and iteration of the organization." His rich business management experience and excellent industrial operation capabilities will greatly enhance the value creation ability of Morning One Fund, discover and empower those excellent integrators who lead the development of the industry, and help improve the efficiency of industry integration. ”
Morning One Fund was established in 2019, and Tianyancha information shows that its registered capital is 100 million yuan. Its founder, Liu Xiaodan, is known as the "Queen of M&A".
Liu Xiaodan, founder of Chenyi Investment.
According to the data, Liu Xiaodan was admitted to Peking University in 1991, and later obtained a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in civil and commercial law, and worked at Peking University after graduation. In 2000, he joined Oriental Gaosheng, a financial advisory firm focusing on mergers and acquisitions, and then joined Hantang Securities. In August 2004, Hantang Securities declared bankruptcy due to the loss of its own business, Liu Xiaodan came to United Securities, and in 2006, United Securities was acquired by Huatai Securities and integrated into today's Huatai United Securities. From 2012 to 2019, he served as the president and chairman of Huatai United Securities, and from 2016 to 2020, he served as the chairman of AssetMark Inc. in the United States, where he led the international business breakthrough and layout of Huatai Securities, including the acquisition of AssetMark and the establishment of a U.S. company, as well as a number of major capital operations at home and abroad.
In January 2021, Morning One Fund announced the completion of its first RMB M&A fund, with a total scale of 6.8 billion yuan. The LP camp not only covers large insurance companies, well-known fund of funds, listed companies, etc., but also the founders, core executives or family offices of many leading enterprises are also important investors of Chenyi M&A Fund. In the process of fundraising, Chenyi M&A Fund has quietly made three investments totaling more than 1 billion yuan. In 2020, Chenyi Investment successively invested in Hualan Biotechnology, BYD Semiconductor and China Innovation Airlines. In February 2022, Hualan Vaccine officially landed on the GEM of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming Liu Xiaodan's first IPO after establishing his own portal, with a current market value of more than 20 billion yuan. At the end of 2022, China Innovation Airlines was also listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It became another IPO harvested by Liu Xiaodan after flying solo.
According to the official website, Chenyi Investment has invested in many projects such as New Energy, V-SOL Semiconductor, Changjing Technology, Lisui Technology, Ruichen Pet Medicine, etc., and the investment cases involve pet medical, biomedicine, semiconductors, power batteries and other fields.
Nandu reporter Ma Ningning sent from Shanghai