Alibaba names Toby Xu as new Chief Financial Officer

Alibaba Group Holding announced on Monday that it would reorganize its foreign and domestic e-commerce businesses and hire a new chief financial officer.

The moves come as Alibaba grapples with a slew of challenges, including rising competition, a slowing economy, and regulatory scrutiny.

In order to become more agile and accelerate expansion, Alibaba announced the formation of two new entities to house its core e-commerce businesses: international digital commerce and China digital commerce.

Alibaba’s global consumer-facing and wholesale businesses will be housed in the international digital commerce section, which will include AliExpress, Alibaba.com, and Lazada. Jiang Fan, the former president of the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, will head the unit.

Alibaba’s domestic commerce companies will be housed under the China digital commerce section, which will be overseen by Trudy Dai, a founding member of Alibaba, according to the company.

Toby Xu, the business’s deputy chief financial officer, will take over as chief financial officer in April, the company announced, citing his hiring as part of the company’s leadership succession strategy.

Xu joined Alibaba three years ago from PWC and was promoted to deputy CFO in July of this year.

Wu, who served as CFO of three Alibaba-related companies that went public, will continue to serve on Alibaba’s board as an executive director.

The e-commerce giant’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 8% in early morning trade, mirroring Friday’s losses in the US. Following Didi Global’s decision to delist from the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Chinese companies listed in the United States plummeted on fears of increased regulatory scrutiny at home.

Last month, the firm lowered its annual revenue growth target to the lowest level since its initial public offering in 2014, and sales at its marquee event, the online shopping festival Singles Day, grew at the slowest rate ever.