(Yicai Global) April 7 -- After a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding recently slashed its registered capital to less than 1 percent of the initial amount, an insider told Yicai Global today that the change in business registration information was nothing unusual.

Hangzhou Alibaba Network Technology’s registered capital fell to CNY105 million (USD15.3 million) from CNY12.2 billion (USD1.8 billion) on April 4, according to business registration information, attracting widespread attention online.

Online rumors saying the change was made “at the request of regulators” are untrue, the insider added, saying that it also had nothing to do with the organizational changes announced by Alibaba late last month. The person did not elaborate.

Alibaba announced on March 28 that it was splitting itself into six business groups in its biggest organizational shakeup since it was founded 24 years ago. Managed by their own chief executives and boards, Alibaba will allow them to go public independently when conditions permit.

Hangzhou Alibaba Network Technology was founded in March 2018 and is wholly owned by Taobao China Software, according to publicly available information. Alibaba Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Zhang is its legal representative.

Editor: Peter Thomas