On December 17th, Alibaba Group Holdings Limited announced that it, along with another minority shareholder, will sell 100% of the equity of Intime Department Store to a consortium of buyers consisting of members of the Yagor Group and Intime management team.
At present, Alibaba holds approximately 99% of the equity of Intime Department Store, with a total transaction proceeds of approximately RMB 7.4 billion (USD 1 billion). It is expected to incur a loss of RMB 9.3 billion (USD 1.3 billion) due to the sale of Intime Department Store.
Alibaba has previously stated that it will continue to focus on its core business and looks forward to Yintai Department Store continuing its entrepreneurship with the support of Yagor Group, opening up greater development opportunities.
On the afternoon of December 17th, Intime Group issued a statement stating that it had sold Intime Department Store to Alibaba Group in 2017. Intime Department Store is currently a subsidiary of Alibaba Group and has no direct affiliation with Intime Group.
Alibaba sells 99% equity of Intime Department Store for 7.4 billion yuan
Yintai Department Store was established in 1998. In March 2014, Alibaba announced a strategic investment of HKD 5.37 billion in Yintai Commercial and formed a joint venture company. In June 2016, Intime Commercial Group accepted Alibaba's share swap notice, and Alibaba's total shareholding in Intime reached 27.90%, becoming the largest shareholder.
In January 2017, Intime Commercial announced privatization on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with joint bidders including Alibaba Investment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group, and a wholly-owned company of Intime Commercial founder Shen Guojun. After privatization, Alibaba became the controlling shareholder of Intime Department Store, with its shareholding ratio increasing to about 74%.
On December 17th, Alibaba announced that as of now, Alibaba holds approximately 99% of the equity of Intime Department Store. The total amount obtained from this transaction is approximately 7.4 billion yuan (1 billion US dollars), and it is expected to incur a loss of 9.3 billion yuan (1.3 billion US dollars) due to the sale of Intime Department Store.
Investing in Intime was just the tip of the iceberg for Alibaba's entry into the new retail sector back then. Since 2015, Alibaba has been building its own new retail format through acquisitions or internal incubation. This includes Alibaba's 28.3 billion yuan stake in Suning Group in 2015; In 2016, he successively invested in Hema Fresh and Sanjiang Shopping; In 2017, Alibaba acquired a 36.16% stake in Gaoxin Retail for HKD 22.4 billion, and later invested HKD 4.4 billion in companies such as Red Star Macalline; According to incomplete statistics, within 4 years after Alibaba proposed the new retail, Alibaba's investment in offline retail reached 75 billion yuan.
Alibaba withdraws investment of 6.5 billion yuan within six months