Update | Alibaba, SoftBank eye new joint investments
Alibaba Executive Vice-Chairman Joseph Tsai says the companies will continue to collaborate, jointly invest in new ventures
Alibaba Group plans to pursue promising new investments alongside its largest investor, SoftBank Group Corp, after the Japanese conglomerate sold US$8.9 billion worth of shares that it owned in the Chinese e-commerce giant.
“We’re two different companies so ... strategically, we’re quite complementary rather than competitive,” Alibaba executive vice-chairman Joseph Tsai said in a conference call with analysts Thursday morning.
“We see a lot of ways to work together and jointly invest in some interesting opportunities around the world.”
Last month, Alibaba extended its cloud-computing service business in Japan through a new joint venture with the telecommunications subsidiary of SoftBank.
Tsai said Alibaba has also taken the lead in early-stage projects, like the time it helped SoftBank invest in the Chinese ride-hailing service that eventually became Didi Chuxing.
His comments followed SoftBank’s announcement on the same day that its newly formed Mandatory Exchangeable Trust successfully made an aggregate private placement of US$5.5 billion in securities exchangeable into Alibaba shares in three years to unnamed “qualified institutional buyers”.
