Family Office activity continues to gain critical mass across Asia with news that Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice chairman is said to be setting up his own family office.
According to reports from Hong Kong the new venture could go live as soon as this summer. Forbes listing shows Tsai’s current personal wealth at $5.7bn.
Tsai amassed in the region of $300 million from selling shares in the record breaking September 2014 IPO. As lock-ins on his remaining holdings of Alibaba expire and his options vest, substantially more assets will become available to potentially pump into the family office structure.
Tsai originally from Taiwan and now a Canadian citizen gained experience in the family office investing environment having worked for Investor AB, the family office of the Swedish Wallenberg family, on investments in Asia. He also performed a crucial role as a rainmaker in engaging and attracting investors outside of China with the huge Chinese e-commerce firm.
He joined Alibaba in 1999 as a member of the founding team and has served as the executive vice chairman since May 2013. He previously served as the chief financial officer and has been a member of the board of directors since the formation of Alibaba.
It would seem a logical move with his vast experience in building the biggest e-commerce site that investments would be geared towards the vibrant tech start up scenes in Hong Kong, China and Singapore.
