Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman Jack Ma has been appointed as special adviser on youth entrepreneurship and small business to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an article published by Variety.com reported.
Ma, who was also head of a small business task force at the G20, will assist UNCTAD by providing support to developing countries on how to maximize trade, investment and economic development as well as the U.N.'s 2030 'Agenda for Sustainable Development.'
Recently, the Alibaba founder has been promoting the Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), an Internet-based international group, which he aims to set up to help eliminate trade barriers and provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with better access to join international trade.
The report said these moves highlight the growing role of major Chinese companies in expanding their businesses.
Ant Financial, Alibaba's financial arm, was recently valued to be worth $75 billion by securities firm CLSA, which is higher than Goldman Sachs's valuation of $70 billion, according to Bloomberg.
According to CSLA, Ant Financial's payment service Alipay is estimated to be worth of $50 billion, while its micro loans business could be worth $8 billion and its wealth management unit $7 billion. In addition, the company has also some $10 billion of investments and cash. It has also acquired and invested stakes in financial companies overseas, such as Indian payment provider Paytm.
The report said that Ant Financial, which is personally managed by Ma, is thinking of making a public offering through IPO in early 2017, wherein Alibaba may be allowed to buy a one-third share or receive a one-time payment.
The recent increase in Alibaba's share price may have been partly driven by the anticipated value of the Ant Financial IPO, the report said. Alibaba stock leaped 30 percent in the past three months, from $78.15 per ADR to $101.45 at Tuesday's ( Sept. 20) market close. In the S&P500 index, it showed a 2.7 percent gain and a 1.8 percent increase in the Dow Jones 30 index, for the same period.
Alibaba launched this week a new version of DingTalk, a social media service for businesses, which it said was similar to WeChat and Slack, a U.S. workplace communication tool. The company said it has 2.4 million subscribers and the number is growing at a rate of 200,000 every month.