Morgan Stanley’s Asia Internet Banking Head Tsai Has Left Firm

Pei Li and Cathy Chan, Bloomberg News

The Morgan Stanley headquarters in New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. Morgan Stanley is scheduled to release earnings figures on October 18. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Henry Tsai, Morgan Stanley’s Asia-Pacific head of Internet investment banking, has left the firm just 16 months after rejoining from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter.

Tsai was let go this week, the people said, without elaborating on his sudden departure and asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. A New York-based spokesperson for Morgan Stanley didn’t respond to a request seeking comment. Tsai couldn’t be immediately reached.

Tsai first joined Morgan Stanley in 2007 and left the bank after a decade. During that previous stint at the New York-based firm, he worked on transactions for Alibaba including its IPO in the US, as well as deals in e-commerce, online gaming, semiconductors and fintech. He was formerly director of corporate finance at Alibaba, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Read more: Alibaba Grocery IPO on Backburner as Valuations Disappoint

Morgan Stanley was hired to prepare the Hong Kong initial public offering of Freshippo, Alibaba’s grocery chain known for selling cooked lobsters and grouper chosen from fish-tanks in Alibaba’s stores. The Chinese tech giant has put the sale on the backburner amid weak sentiment for consumer stocks, people with knowledge of the matter said in September, after valuations came in below its expectations.

--With assistance from Dong Cao and Sridhar Natarajan.