Alibaba finance arm hires ex-Goldman banker Feagin in global push

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's online finance arm Ant Financial Services Group has hired former-Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Douglas Feagin as a senior vice president, in charge of the unit's international business.

His appointment, effective from June 15, gives the Chinese Internet finance firm's upper ranks an experienced hand in international finance, Ant said in a statement.

Ant Financial, valued at about $60 billion, is also preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) and has been making deals outside of its main home market in China.

"Globalization is Ant Financial's most important strategy for the coming decade," Ant Financial President Eric Jing said in the statement.

Feagin will be based in the United States and report to Jing. Feagin is the second senior former Goldman executive to join an Alibaba affiliate company in recent times. In August, Michael Evans, former vice chairman and head of Asia at Goldman, became the president of Alibaba Group.

Since last year, Ant Financial has made several key investments including buying a stake in Indian digital wallet, Paytm. It has received approval to establish K-Bank, South Korea's first Internet bank, together with local partners. In Australia, Ant Financial, has invested in PayBang.

Recently, Ant and ride service company Uber Technologies announced plans for global expansion to provide Alipay's payment service for Chinese travelers in 68 overseas countries and regions. Last month, Ant raised $4.5 billion in its latest round of capital raising, in what was the biggest ever fund raising by a private Internet company..

Feagin has worked at Goldman for more than two decades and most recently he was the head of the bank's Financial Institutions Group for the Americas, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked as a senior partner advising clients that included banks, finance, technology and insurance sectors across the United States, Latin America and Asia.

Feagin was also the head of Goldman Sachs' Financial Institutions Group in Asia (ex-Japan) from 2004 to 2010. He received his MBA at Harvard Business School in 1994, and graduated from University of Virginia in 1988.