Alibaba to invest $692m in GIC-backed Intime Retail

According to a regulatory filing, Alibaba will pay HK$1.66 billion to buy 220.5 million shares at HK$7.53 apiece. The equity stake is equivalent to about 9.9% of the enlarged company. It will also subscribe to a HK$3.71 billion convertible bond, which if converted will give Alibaba an additional 24.39% stakes in Intime.

Upon completing of the transaction, GIC Private will see its stake reduced to 6.99% from 9.46% on a diluted basis.

Intime will use the net proceeds for new store openings, acquisitions of retail businesses, debt repayment and general working capital.

Meanwhile, the two companies will form a joint venture to develop shopping malls, department stores and supermarkets. It is another online-to-offline (O2O) play, with a view to leveraging the expertise, resources and infrastructure of Intime's existing department store network and Alibaba's e-commerce platform and consumer data.

Alibaba will hold 80.1% of the joint venture while the remainder will be owned by Intime.

Intime operates Intime Department Stores, Intime Shopping Centers and online store Yintai.com. As of the end of last year, it owned a total of 30 department stores and six shopping centers with a total gross floor area of 1.77 million square meters.

Last year, Intime opened online stores on Tmall.com, Aliababa's B2C e-commerce platform. The company claims to be the first department store chain operator in China to introduce Alibaba's e-payment system Alipay service in its physical stores.

Alibaba, which has a string of PE investors, is seeking to go public in the US. The offering could reportedly be worth up to $15 billion.

Earlier this month, it invested $215 million in California-based messaging app maker Tango. It also agreed to buy 60% of Hong Kong-listed ChinaVision Media Group - in which rival Tencent Holding and VC firm Sequoia Capital are current shareholders, for HK$6.24 billion.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• China
• Alibaba Group
• Consumer
• e-commerce
• TMT
• GIC Private