Daniel Zhang, former CEO of Alibaba, joined Morning One Fund and joined Liu Xiaodan to explore a new future of mergers and acquisitions

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Daniel Zhang, former CEO of Alibaba, joined Morning One Fund and joined Liu Xiaodan to explore a new future of M&A investment

At noon on March 21, the official WeChat of Morning One Investment released a blockbuster news, announcing that Daniel Zhang (Xiaoyaozi), former chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, officially joined Morning One Fund as a managing partner with founder Liu Xiaodan, and the two sides will work together to explore the new future of M&A funds. This personnel change has undoubtedly attracted widespread attention in the investment community, indicating that Morning One Fund will open a new chapter of development.

As a legend of Alibaba Group, Daniel Zhang has driven a number of major strategic changes and business innovations during his tenure, laying a solid foundation for Alibaba's growth. Joining Morning One Fund this time, Daniel Zhang said that he will give full play to his rich experience in enterprise management, industrial operation and capital market, and work with Liu Xiaodan to build the core competitiveness of future M&A investment.

As the founder of Morning One Fund, Liu Xiaodan has deep accumulation and outstanding performance in the field of mergers and acquisitions. Since its establishment in 2019, Morning One Fund has invested in outstanding companies in many fields, demonstrating strong investment capabilities and market acumen. The addition of Daniel Zhang will undoubtedly further strengthen the professional ability and global vision of Morning One Foundation, and accelerate the upgrading and iteration of the organization.

The M&A market has been active in recent years, and with the support of regulatory policies and the benign development of the market ecology, more and more listed companies have achieved industrial synergy and integration and high-quality development through mergers and acquisitions. In this context, with its rich experience in mergers and acquisitions and a strong investment team, Chenyi Fund is expected to occupy a more important position in the future market.

The cooperation between Daniel Zhang and Liu Xiaodan will inject new vitality and innovative spirit into the Morning One Foundation. The two parties will make full use of their respective advantages and resources, focus on the huge opportunities brought about by technological development and economic transformation and upgrading, and build an M&A investment fund with global influence based on China and the world.

In the future, under the joint leadership of Daniel Zhang and Liu Xiaodan, how Morning One Fund will continue to deepen the layout of the M&A investment field and how to discover and empower more outstanding enterprises leading the development of the industry is worthy of market attention and expectation.

The identity of "investor" is consistent with Daniel Zhang's previous experience. In September 2023, Alibaba Group ushered in a major personnel change, Daniel Zhang resigned as Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, Joe Tsai took over as Chairman of the Group, and Wu Yongming became CEO of Alibaba Group. At the same time, Daniel Zhang also resigned as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud, and Wu Yongming served as the concurrent position.

When he first joined Alibaba in 2007, Daniel Zhang served as Taobao's chief financial officer. Prior to joining Alibaba, Daniel Zhang graduated from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics with a degree in finance, worked as a senior manager in the audit and corporate advisory department of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and served as the chief financial officer of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Co., Ltd., an online game developer and operator.

According to Chenyi Investment, in the 16 years of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang has created the "Double 11" global consumption event, led Tmall to promote brand enterprises to embrace the digital tide, led Alibaba to leapfrog from the PC era to the wireless era, and has a wide range of layouts in many fields around the world.

At the same time, he led the construction of a unified data middle platform for all businesses of Alibaba, promoted the overall migration of Alibaba Group to the cloud, and laid the key foundation for its intelligent development. As the former Chairman of Alibaba's Board of Directors, he has demonstrated exceptional leadership as he navigates the challenges of the pandemic and the drastic changes in the external environment.

According to the official website, Chenyi Investment clearly positions itself as a "pioneer in mergers and acquisitions" and is an acquisition fund. Its founder is Liu Xiaodan, former chairman of Huatai United Securities.

Liu Xiaodan served as the president and chairman of Huatai United Securities, and 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 just a few years, she has built Huatai United Securities into a leader in domestic mergers and acquisitions, creating a legend of "queen of mergers and acquisitions".

On August 21, 2019, Liu Xiaodan posted on the circle of friends that he confirmed his departure from Huatai United Securities. In the open letter, he said: "I want to explore the infinite possibilities of my future in an infinite unknown world. Ending his investment banking career today is also to realize his long-standing dream of starting a business, and the judgment of the future trend of the market has intensified this impulse. ”

In the past two years, Liu Xiaodan has repeatedly stated bluntly that systemic opportunities in China's M&A market have emerged. She believes that the change of the underlying logic of the primary market has made investment more and more homogeneous, and the money-making effect of IPO exit is getting worse and worse. Since 2016, the average annual investment in the primary market of trillions of yuan is impossible to exit completely through IPOs, and mergers and acquisitions have become the focus of discussion at present.

According to the display released by the China Research Institute of Puhua Industry Research Institute:

The M&A fund industry is currently in a stage of rapid development, driven by a combination of factors.

First of all, the policy environment has played a positive role in promoting the development of the M&A fund industry. The government has been committed to promoting the development of the M&A industry and has continuously released positive signals to support foreign investors to participate in China's M&A market. For example, the State Council and the China Securities Regulatory Commission have both issued policies on optimizing the market environment for mergers and acquisitions of enterprises and encouraging buyout funds to participate in the mergers and acquisitions of listed companies, providing a good policy environment for the development of the buyout fund industry.

Second, the market size of the M&A fund industry is expanding. With the increasing activity of the M&A market, more and more M&A funds have entered the market to promote the integration of resources and high-quality development of enterprises by providing professional M&A services and financial support. At the same time, the M&A fund industry is also actively innovating business models, promoting the formation of new financial capital, and providing more sources of capital for the M&A market.

However, the development of the buyout fund industry also faces some challenges. On the one hand, the market is becoming increasingly competitive, and buyout funds need to continuously improve their professional capabilities and service levels to stand out in the market. On the other hand, the exit mechanism is not yet perfect, which may affect investor confidence and the expansion of the fund size. Therefore, the M&A fund industry needs to further improve the exit mechanism to improve investment returns and reduce investment risks.

In addition, the development of the M&A fund industry also needs to pay attention to risk control. Through a comprehensive assessment of the financial status and operational risks of the target company, the M&A fund can reduce the investment risk and improve the investment success rate. At the same time, with the continuous development and change of the M&A market, M&A funds also need to constantly adapt to the new market environment and regulatory requirements, and remain flexible and innovative.

In general, the M&A fund industry has shown a positive development trend in terms of policy support and market scale expansion, but it is also facing challenges such as market competition and imperfect exit mechanisms. In the future, with the further development of the M&A market and the continuous improvement of regulatory policies, the M&A fund industry is expected to continue to maintain a rapid growth trend, providing more support and help for enterprises' M&A, restructuring and resource integration.

The outlook for the M&A fund industry has shown a positive trend in a number of ways.

First of all, with the global economic recovery and the increase in the activity of the financial market, the scale of the buyout fund market continues to grow, showing a strong momentum of development. This shows that the M&A fund industry has received extensive attention and sought after around the world, and has broad room for development.

Secondly, the market maturity of the M&A fund industry is also increasing. The number and value of transactions showed a steady growth trend, showing the market vitality and potential of the M&A fund industry. At the same time, major players in the industry, such as private equity firms, investment banks, asset management companies, etc., have further enhanced the competitiveness and attractiveness of the industry by providing differentiated investment strategies, professional investment teams and high-quality customer services.

In addition, the policy environment has also played a positive role in promoting the development of the M&A fund industry. The government has continuously released positive signals to support foreign investors to participate in China's M&A market, providing a favorable policy environment for the development of the M&A fund industry. This will help attract more foreign capital into the M&A fund industry and promote the further opening up and internationalization of the industry.

At the same time, with the acceleration of technological progress and digital transformation, the M&A fund industry will also usher in more development opportunities. The application of big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies will help improve the efficiency of investment decision-making and risk management of M&A funds, and further promote the development of the industry.

However, it is also necessary to recognize some challenges faced by the M&A fund industry in the development process, such as fierce market competition and imperfect exit mechanisms. Therefore, the M&A fund industry needs to continuously innovate and improve its own operating model and service system to adapt to market changes and meet the needs of investors.

To sum up, the development prospects of the M&A fund industry are positive and have broad development space and potential. But it is also necessary to pay attention to the challenges and problems within the industry, and take effective measures to deal with and solve them.

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