Alibaba Group BABA, the world’s largest e-Commerce company, has a new president — Michael Evans.
Does the name sound familiar? May be, as he happens to be a former Olympic rowing gold medalist.
Not enough to be a company president? Let’s have a look at his other credentials.
Evans, a Canadian finance executive, served as a partner at Goldman Sachs (GS) for two decades where he was the Vice Chairman, head of Global Growth Markets, and Chairman of Asia. He left the company last year.
Evans has been an independent board member of Alibaba Group since the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) in September.
Evans’ New Role
Evans will initially focus on Alibaba’s global expansion strategy, looking to build partnerships with brands, retailers and product owners in the U.S., Europe and Asia to help them sell in China. Additionally, he will continue to serve on the board as a management member.
Alibaba already has a president who works with domestic government and takes care of public relations and it’s not yet clear how responsibilities will be split.
Evans will report to Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Group’s CEO.
Alibaba’s Global Stratagem
According to Satish Meena, a forecast analyst at Forrester, subsequent to its record shattering $25 billion IPO last year, Alibaba is likely to focus on both developing and mature e-Commerce markets outside China.
Mu Zhi Li, Internet equity analyst at Arete Research, is of the opinion that growth has already reached its peak and is now converging toward China's overall macro growth. Alibaba already has 80% share of the country's e-Commerce space and therefore needs other growth drivers.
It is for this reason that Alibaba is encouraging cross-border e-Commerce to drive growth. Also, China’s online-retail market is becoming more competitive with players increasingly tapping into consumers’ mounting demand for imported goods.
For now, investors seem happy about the new appointment — Alibaba gained 1.2% to finish the day at $78.92.
Alibaba currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Some better-ranked stocks in the industry are Groupon Inc. GRPN, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and PetMed Express, Inc. PETS. While Groupon and Amazon sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), PetMed has a Zacks Rank # 2(Buy).
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