Alibaba subsidiary hikes stake in brick and mortar retailer

10 Jan '17

2 min read

A subsidiary of Alibaba Group, Alibaba Investment Limited is increasing and taking a controlling stake in Chinese brick and mortar retailer Intime Retail Company Ltd. Alibaba Investment currently owns around 28 per cent of the equity stake and under the proposed transaction, its stake would climb to around 74 per cent and make it a controlling shareholder.

Alibaba Investment together with the founder of Intime, Shen Guo Jun have requested the Intime board of directors to put forward to shareholders a proposal to privatise the publicly listed department store operator by way of a scheme of arrangement.

Under the scheme, shares in Intime will be cancelled in exchange for a payment at HK $10.00 per share, representing a premium of approximately 53.59 per cent over the average closing price of Intime shares over the last 60 days.

Intime is a leading department store chain in China operating 29 department stores and 17 shopping malls, mainly in tier I and II cities in China.

Through this deal, Alibaba plans to work with brick and mortar retailers to integrate online and offline customer data, enhance consumers’ in-store experience as well as achieve improvements in inventory efficiency and sales turnover. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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