Liu Qiangdong, founder and chief executive of JD.com, said on Monday that his focus will be on the company's new businesses, and that the management team can handle more mature businesses.

Richard Liu, the billionaire founder and chief executive of JD.com, said he would shift his focus away from the e-commerce giant's core business.Just two months ago, Liu Qiangdong was arrested in the United States on suspicion of rape.

The tech entrepreneur, who goes by the English name Richard, said on Monday he would hand over some of the chief executive's responsibilities to other members of the company's executive team and focus more on new businesses.

My personal focus is mainly on new business.For more mature businesses, the management team can handle them well.Liu told analysts after the company announced its third-quarter results.

A spokesman for JD.com said the company's strategy has not changed and that Liu Qiangdong has had a strong management team to manage the day-to-day business from a very early stage.

Liu Qiangdong founded JD.com in 1998 and has kept a firm grip on the company for 20 years.He controls the majority of voting shares and the group board cannot hold formal votes in his absence.

Liu Qiangdong, 45, one of China's wealthiest businessmen, was arrested in the U.S. state of Minnesota in early September.The reason for his detention was initially described as allegedly committing criminal sexual misconduct.Liu Qiangdong was subsequently released without charge.The client in the case is a Chinese student at the University of Minnesota.Three days after his arrest, Liu Qiangdong returned to China.

Minneapolis police said the case has been referred to the county attorney, who will decide whether Liu faces criminal charges.So far no further legal action has been taken by the district attorney.

JD.com, which counts Alibaba as its main competitor, has previously described the incident as false allegations.

On Monday, Sidney Huang, chief financial officer of JD.com, said: We really don’t have any new information to tell you about the Minnesota incident.We are also unable to comment further because we must respect the due process of the US judicial system.

Richard has returned to work. This incident has not had a substantial impact on JD.com, and it is expected that it will not in the future.He added that our strong executive team, most of whom have been with the company for more than five years, will continue to lead the company effectively.

But analysts say Mr. Liu's arrest has damaged JD.com's reputation and its relationship with Chinese government officials.

Li Chengdong, chief executive of Dongge Investment, a technology consulting firm in Beijing, said: Liu Qiangdong's personal problems will affect JD.com's brand image.This incident will also affect the prestige of JD.com's management team - they may not be invited to government meetings again.

Liu Qiangdong was not included in the list of outstanding private entrepreneurs released by the Chinese government last month to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up.His rivals, Alibaba's Jack Ma, and the smaller Suning's Zhang Jindong are on the list.

Zhang Yi, chief executive of iMedia Research, a tech consultancy, said the arrest had dealt a big blow to Liu Qiangdong.

Zhang Yi said: This has affected the public's perception of him, as well as the perception of him at the top.He is referring to the Chinese government here.I predict that the future trend is that he gradually fades out. In fact, this may not be a bad thing for JD.com, and it will help cultivate a new generation of leaders.

JD.com shares have fallen 55 percent since January, largely due to Beijing's tightening of regulations on technology companies and growing investor concern about the fallout from the U.S.-China trade war.China's retail growth is also slowing.

JD.com on Monday reported net revenue of 104.8 billion yuan ($15 billion) for the three months to the end of September, up 25 percent from a year earlier but below the 106.2 billion yuan expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

JD.com's operating losses continued to widen, with operating margins on its core e-commerce platform, JD Mall, down 0.1 percentage point year-on-year to 2.2%.

The group reported a total quarterly profit of 3 billion yuan.But JD.com's profit would have turned into a loss had it not been for the fact that JD.com's stake in British luxury goods platform Farfetch had risen in value by 3.6 billion yuan following the latter's successful initial public offering (IPO) in September.

JD.com's active users over the past year fell to 305.2 million, compared with 313.8 million in the previous quarter.

Additional reporting by Sherry Fei Ju and Nian Liu

Translator/He Li