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(Corrects year and details of share buyback in paragraph 16)
By Josh Horwitz, Kane Wu and Julie Zhu
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, March 30 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group said on Thursday it will look to monetise non-core assets and consider giving up control of some businesses, as the Chinese tech conglomerate reinvents itself after a regulatory crackdown that wiped 70% off its shares.
Group CEO Daniel Zhang said the company's breakup into separate businesses will allow its units to become more agile and eventually launch their own initial public offerings (IPO).
His comments come two days after Alibaba announced the largest restructuring in the company's history, which will see it change into a holding company structure with six business units, each with their own boards and CEOs.
"Alibaba will be more of the nature of an asset and capital operator than a business operator, in relation to the business group companies," Zhang told investors on a conference call on Thursday.
On the same call, Alibaba CFO Toby Xu said the group would "continue to evaluate the strategic importance of these companies" and "decide whether or not to continue to retain control".
Alibaba's indication that it could divest from assets and sell control of business units after they go public comes more than two years after Beijing launched a sweeping crackdown on its tech giants, targeting monopolistic practices, data security protection and other issues.
While the new business units will have their own CEOs and boards, Alibaba will retain seats on those boards in the short-term, Zhang added.
The group's Hong Kong-listed shares opened 2.7% higher after the investor call following the 12% jump on Wednesday, but gains narrowed to 0.9% by midday.
MATTER OF SURVIVAL
Alibaba began laying the groundwork for the restructuring a few years ago, Zhang said.
As a result of the restructuring, each business unit can pursue independent fundraisings and IPOs when they're ready, Xu said, when asked about the timeline for the listings. The changes will come into effect immediately.
"We believe the market is the litmus test so each company can pursue financing and IPO as and when they are ready," said Xu.
Alibaba, however, will decide whether the group wants to keep strategic control of each unit after they go public.
Meanwhile, the group is also planning to continue to monetise non-strategic assets in its portfolio to optimise its capital structure, said Xu.
Alibaba's major rival Tencent has in the past year divested from a number of portfolio companies including selling a $3 billion stake in SEA, transferring $16.4 billion worth of JD.COM shares and $20 billion worth of Meituan shares to shareholders.