Ant Group promotes finance chief Cyril Han to CEO as Alipay owner marks 20-year milestone

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CEO Eric Jing will relinquish his management post on March 1 next year and retain his role as group chairman, according to an internal memo on Sunday

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Chairman and CEO Eric Jing will relinquish his management role from March next year, according to an intermal memo on December 8. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Wency Chenin Shanghai

Published: 12:41pm, 8 Dec 2024Updated: 1:58pm, 8 Dec 2024

Ant Group, China’s biggest operator of mobile payment systems, is promoting its finance chief Cyril Han Xinyi to the CEO post from next year to freshen its top management and drive the next phase of growth after more than 20 years in business.

Han, the group’s current president and chief financial officer, will take over from Eric Jing Xiandong from March 1 with the responsibility for all business segments and daily management, according to a December 8 email to employees seen by the Post. Jing will remain as the group chairman.

“In the decade since he joined Alipay in 2014, Cyril has made important contributions to the group’s development with strategic acumen, dedication and professionalism,” Jing said in the email to employees. “Cyril has won deep trust and recognition from the entire team with his modesty, candour, selflessness and fairness. I am 100 per cent confident that Cyril will lead the team to scale new exciting heights beyond our expectations.”

Former investment banker Cyril Han Xinyi joined Alibaba Group Holding. Photo: Handout

Alibaba Group Holding derived 2.48 billion yuan (US$353 million) of profit from Ant Group in the six-month period to September 30, based on its 33 per cent equity stake in the unit, up from 846 million yuan from the same period in 2023. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Based in Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province, Ant Group owns Alipay which controlled 55 per cent of China’s mobile payments market at the end of 2023, according to Statista. WeChat Pay, its biggest rival owned by Tencent Holdings, had a 37 per cent share. China is projected to process US$12.8 trillion worth of digital-payment transactions in 2029 versus US$8.6 trillion in 2024, Statista said.

Jing will relinquish the CEO post he has held since taking over from Lucy Peng in October 2016. He became the chairman in April 2018. Sunday’s announcement came on the 20th anniversary of Alipay and Ant Group.

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Han worked as an investment banker at China International Capital Corp for a decade before joining Alibaba Group Holding in 2011 in the finance department. He moved to Ant Group in 2014 and became its CFO in April 2020. He has been an executive director since January 2023, according to data published on its website. He was made the group president in March.