Jason Pau – executive director of international programmes at the Jack Ma Foundation, the billionaire’s philanthropic organisation established in 2014 – is listed as the company’s executive director and general manager. Xu Shi, another former executive at Ma’s foundation, is a supervisor for the new company, according to Chinese media reports, citing information from corporate registry data provider Tianyancha.

The Jack Ma Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Ma’s latest venture was interpreted by some to be a move into offering ready meals, an industry that has been booming in China as investors look to cash in on lifestyle changes during the pandemic. One Chinese media outlet said on Saturday that the company’s references to pre-packaged food do not refer to pre-cooked meals, citing a WeChat post of a former assistant to Ma.

The domestic ready-meals industry is expected to see sales of about 510 billion yuan this year, with the potential to double in the next three years, according to a report by iiMedia Research.

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma (second from right) at the Oshima station of Kindai University’s Aquaculture Research Institute in northern Japan’s Hokkaido region. Photo: Handout

Ma, who stepped down as Alibaba chairman on his 55th birthday in 2019, has turned his attention to agriculture and education in recent years. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Since handing over the reins of the e-commerce behemoth he founded nearly a quarter century ago, the globe-trotting billionaire has visited agricultural laboratories in the Netherlands, a tuna farm in Japan and a night market in Thailand to better understand his new avocation.

Ma’s Kitchen is just the latest of multiple new incorporated entities that are part of the entrepreneur’s bet on agriculture. In July, Ma was found to be behind a fishery and agricultural start-up called 1.8 Metres Marine Technology, which had 110 million yuan in registered capital. Its business scope includes aquatic products, feeding and food processing.

The Alibaba founder still holds significant influence over the e-commerce giant. After Ma returned to China earlier this year, Alibaba began its largest-ever corporate restructuring in a plan meant to split the sprawling conglomerate into six independent business units. The overhaul faced its first big challenge on November 16 when the company halted plans to publicly list Alibaba Cloud.

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On the same day, Ma’s family trust announced plans to sell US$870 million in Alibaba shares, sparking rumours about the billionaire’s confidence in the company and possible lay-offs, prompting rebuttals from the company and Ma’s office.

The combined news of the cloud unit’s fate and the planned sell-off sent Alibaba shares plummeting by 10 per cent.

Jane Jiang, chief people officer at Alibaba, explained in an internal letter earlier this week that Ma intends to use the funds to support his agricultural technology and philanthropy initiatives, but he has not sold any Alibaba shares yet as the stock is “very much undervalued now”.

Темы и теги

Работа, Карьера, Учеба

Джек Ма Alibaba гигант коммерция Джейсон Пау Фонд Джека Ма пища ставка хозяйство сельский