Alibaba's US$692m Intime investment to push online-to-offline sales channel
E-commerce giant looks to develop a unified sales environment for merchants and shoppers through the US$692m investment in Intime
E-commerce giant Alibaba has stepped up its cross-sector acquisitions with a deal to invest US$692 million in Hong Kong-listed Intime Retail, one of the mainland's largest operators of department stores.
The transaction, which includes the establishment of a joint venture between the two companies, will enable Alibaba to rapidly develop a unified online, mobile and offline retail sales environment for merchants and shoppers across the mainland.
"We hope to make Intime a new platform for the online and offline economies, creating a new business model to serve the entire retail industry," Alibaba chief operating officer Daniel Zhang Yong said in Beijing yesterday. "Everybody knows online to offline is the market direction. We need to be a pioneer and take the first step forward."
Alibaba agreed to invest US$214 million in cash for a 9 per cent equity interest in Intime and subscribe to US$478 million worth of convertible bonds issued by the Beijing-based operator of department stores and shopping centres.
If the group converted those bonds, it would have an equity stake of up to 25 per cent in Intime.