The fund joined by former Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang is not simple, and the latter head Liu Xiaodan is the "queen of mergers and acquisitions"

Lei Jianping on March 21

Half a year after stepping down from the post of chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Alibaba Group, the "meritorious Ali man" Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi) has a clear whereabouts.

Leidi.com learned that Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi) will join Morning One Fund and co-manage partner with founder Liu Xiaodan to explore the new future of M&A funds.

When Leidi connected with Liu Xiaodan today, she had just gotten off the plane, and Liu Xiaodan chose to keep a low profile, saying: "We want to do something we like in a low profile, thank you for your continued concern." ”

Chen Tianqiao and Ma Yun are Daniel Zhang nobles

According to reports, Daniel Zhang graduated from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and from 1995 to 2005, he worked in Arthur Andersen and PricewaterhouseCoopers. What really changed Daniel Zhang's fate were two noble people in his life - Chen Tianqiao, the founder of Shanda Group, and Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba.

Daniel Zhang joined Shanda Group as financial director in his early years, and later became CFO of Shanda Network; in 2007, Daniel Zhang moved to Alibaba Group as CFO of Taobao. Daniel Zhang took over as CEO of Alibaba Group in May 2015 and became Chairman of Alibaba Group four years later in September 2019.

Until September 10, 2023, Daniel Zhang will no longer continue to serve as the chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, and completely withdraw from Alibaba management. At that time, Alibaba Group announced an investment of $1 billion to support Daniel Zhang in setting up a future-oriented technology fund to "assist Alibaba in the future technology layout and create a better ecological environment."

From the point of view of Daniel Zhang joining the Morning One Fund, Daniel Zhang can be regarded as breaking away from the Ali system.

However, Daniel Zhang has served as CEO of Alibaba for 8 years, and also served as the chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba for 4 years, accumulating sufficient network resources.

On behalf of Alibaba Group, Cai Chongxin, the current chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba, thanked Daniel Zhang for his dedication and contribution to the company in the past 16 years, saying that Daniel Zhang created Double 11, a well-known global consumer carnival, led the rapid development of Tmall and promoted the tide of comprehensive Internetization of brand enterprises, led the team to make Ali smoothly leapfrog into the wireless era, and led the group to deploy in multiple fields and globally.

Tsai Chongxin specifically mentioned that after Daniel Zhang took over as chairman of the board of directors of the group four years ago, he faced many challenges such as fighting the epidemic and drastic changes in the external business environment, and he led Ali to stabilize the market and tide over one difficulty after another.

Talking about joining Morning One Fund, Daniel Zhang said: "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. ”

Liu Xiaodan: "It is an honor to cooperate with Xiaoyaozi, and I believe that his joining will further strengthen the professional capabilities of the team, 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. ”

Partner Liu Xiaodan is the "Queen of M&A"

In January 2021, Chenyi Fund announced that its first RMB fund had completed fundraising, with a total scale of 6.8 billion yuan.

Focusing on the three major areas of technology and advanced manufacturing, medical and health, and consumption and services, Chenyi M&A Fund focuses on endogenous and extended growth opportunities in the middle and late stages of enterprises, creating value for industrial integration, and promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.

Liu Xiaodan, born in 1972, entered Peking University in 1991 to study political science and administration, and worked at Peking University after graduation.

Liu Xiaodan worked in Dongfang Gaosheng, a financial advisory company focusing on mergers and acquisitions, and later worked at Hantang Securities, and then came to United Securities. Later, United Securities was acquired by Huatai Securities and integrated into Huatai United Securities. In 2012, Liu Xiaodan was promoted to president of Huatai United Securities.

Liu Xiaodan is also a recognized investment banker, and was once the "soul of Huatai United", known as the "Queen of M&A" who has achieved the ultimate in professionalism.

Before leaving Huatai United, Liu Xiaodan also did several major things in Huatai United Securities: including the IPO of Huatai Securities on the London Stock Exchange, the listing of AssetMark in the United States, an overseas subsidiary of Huatai Securities, and the opening of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and the first share of Science and Technology Innovation.

"The 15-year H-share listing roadshow tells investors the story of a transcendent in the era of securities industry transformation. Four years, one big thing a year, in an extremely volatile market environment, continue to practice the dream of transcendence. In the financial industry, which has a chain of contempt, regional brokerages who are not of noble origin rely on the tenacity and hard work of the management to counterattack step by step, just like the wildflowers blooming on the cliffs of California, no matter how harsh the natural environment is, they still have to bloom tenaciously. ”

Liu Xiaodan once said that the luckiest thing as a professional manager is to experience these big things with the company, and to temper himself while witnessing the company's growth. Looking back at the youthfulness and panic of the company when preparing for the H-share listing, to the calmness and calmness of global investors now, everything experienced during this period has become a story. Again and again, the mountains and rivers are exhausted, life and death are fast again and again, and then they turn the tide again and again, and they are desperate again and again——— the past is not as good as smoke, but the face has changed.

Among them, in 2016, Huatai Securities acquired AssetMark, which was also its first overseas strategic merger and acquisition, and this project was led by Liu Xiaodan.

An insider at Huatai Securities recalled that three years ago, in April, the three women's soldiers flew to San Francisco to demand the Assetmark, at a time when Anbang HNA's large-scale acquisition surprised overseas investors, and at a difficult negotiation table dominated by a group of foreign men, three weak women from the East wanted to prove that the Chinese buyer had the credibility to complete the deal, rather than just having the money to pay a high price.

"The dramatic negotiation process can almost be written into a textbook, and everyone still talks about the last moment when I angrily broke up at the negotiating table, turned the situation around and won the deal. ”

In August 2019, Liu Xiaodan announced his resignation and issued an open letter, saying that he chose to end his investment banking career today because he wanted to fulfill his long-standing dream of starting a business - the judgment of the future trend of the market has intensified this impulse.

"For me, it's like letting go of the children I raised, even though I have a lot of reluctance in my heart, I don't have any regrets - because youth is the future, and I believe in them more than in myself. Liu Xiaodan said that in the applause, leave the stage to more outstanding young people, please believe that this industry can still have a warm goodbye, a beautiful inheritance, not all bloody conspiracy and the reincarnation of fate.

Today, Liu Xiaodan has founded the Morning One Fund for more than 4 years, and with the joining of Daniel Zhang, the two people are even more harmonious, with infinite superposition of resources, and unlimited imagination space for the market.

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