The largest e-commerce company in China, Alibaba Group, has appointed former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer corporate partner Timothy Steinert as its new general counsel only days after announcing its plan for an IPO of Alibaba.com in Hong Kong.
Before Steinert's appointment, chief financial officer of Alibaba Joseph Tsai was the acting general counsel. Steinert specialises in advising on international securities offerings of Chinese companies and cross-border M&A. Prior to joining Freshfields' Hong Kong office in 1999, Steinert had practised at Davis Polk & Wardwell in Hong Kong and New York and legacy firm Coudert Brothers in New York and Beijing.
In his new role he will report to Alibaba Group's chief executive Jack Ma and will work out of the Hong Kong headquarters. "We are delighted to welcome someone of Tim's calibre and experience," Ma said in a statement. "I am confident he will play an important role as Alibaba Group continues to build a global e-commerce company serving customers around the world."
Alibaba has 200 million registered users across 200 countries and has reported annual revenues of US$68m. In 2005, the company formed a strategic partnership with Yahoo! Inc and takes over the operation of Yahoo! China. The Alibaba-Yahoo deal was awarded 'IT/Telco Deal of the Year' in 2006 by ALB China Law Awards.