Daniel Zhang, the outgoing chairman and CEO of Alibaba, has stepped down from his position running the company’s cloud division in a surprise move announced just months after he assumed the pivotal role.

In Hong Kong, Alibaba’s stock dropped 3% after the announcement.

A worsening downturn in China’s second largest economy has forced Zhang to fully depart the company’s core management team.

The 51-year-old Zhang announced just three months ago that he needed to focus on spinning off the company’s cloud business to step down as CEO.

On Monday, Citi analysts wrote, “We were surprised to hear this news.”.

“Mr Zhang may have wanted to step away from the public spotlight, according to our understanding,” they added without providing any further details.

Alibaba said Monday that Eddie Yongming Wu will succeed Zhang as acting chairman and CEO of its cloud unit.

Alibaba said in a stock exchange filing that it would continue to implement its previously announced plan to spin off Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group under a separate management team.

Alibaba announced in May it was in the process of spinning off its cloud unit, which it intended to become an independent publicly listed company within the next 12 months.

The company said, saying the company’s leadership transition had been completed, that Tsai has assumed the position of chairman, and Wu has become CEO and director.