Alibaba

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Alibaba extends bricks-and mortar retail push with Bailian deal

Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has formed a strategic partnership with retail conglomerate Bailian Group, extending a push into bricks-and-mortar retail as online growth slows.

The move comes on the heels of a recent purchase of a stake in retailer Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd as well as plans to take a controlling stake in Intime Retail Group Co Ltd and privatize it.

There are currently no plans for financial investment, an Alibaba spokesman said.

Shanghai-based Bailian Group is one of China's largest retailers by sales, operating 4,700 outlets in 200 cities including supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies. Alibaba has an active user base of around 500 million.

More details in http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibab...SKBN15Z08C

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Alibaba posts record 2016 revenue of US$22.96 billion, even as profit slips

by Zen Soo
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 18 May, 2017, 8:17pm
UPDATED : Friday, 19 May, 2017, 9:46am

Alibaba Group’s 2016 revenue soared to a record, spurred by the increasing penchant by Chinese consumers to buy everything online, from clothing to food and electronics. Net profit missed analysts’ estimates due to a larger tax bill and investments in cloud computing.

Revenue jumped 56 per cent to 158.27 billion yuan (US$22.96 billion) for the year ended March 31, even as net income fell 42 per cent to 41.23 billion yuan. Fourth-quarter sales rose for the seventh consecutive quarter to 38.58 billion yuan, while net income jumped 85 per cent to 9.85 billion yuan during the three months.

Alibaba’s shares plunged as much as 5.6 per cent in New York trading after results were announced, before recovering to close the day 0.5 per cent higher at US$121.27.

More details in http://www.scmp.com/tech/enterprises/art...nas-online

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Alibaba to Spend $15 Billion Exploring 'Moonshot' Projects

By Lulu Yilun Chen
October 11, 2017, 10:28 AM GMT+8

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will more than double research and development spending to $15 billion over the next three years to develop next-generation technology, drive its sprawling business and explore moonshot projects that could upend industries.

The e-commerce giant plans to set up seven research labs and hire 100 scientists around the world to delve into artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and quantum computing, the company said in an emailed statement. Specific fields include machine learning, visual computing and network security.

The program marks a significant ramp-up in its R&D outlay and is intended to help the $469 billion behemoth keep pace with Amazon.com Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in potentially industry-changing advancements. It’s in line with ambitions voiced by top policy makers who want China to become a global leader in artificial intelligence.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...er-3-years

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Alibaba Singles' Day Sales Hit $8.6 Billion in First Hour

Bloomberg News
November 11, 2017, 12:27 AM GMT+8 Updated on November 11, 2017, 2:47 AM GMT+8

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. kicked off its annual Singles’ Day shopping bonanza, logging $8.6 billion in sales within the first hour.

Shoppers from at least 192 countries and regions swarmed the e-commerce giant to scoop up discounted lobster, iPhones and refrigerators, at a rate of as many as 256,000 transactions per second. The Chinese company hosted a star-studded gala enlisting tennis star Maria Sharapova and American rapper Pharrell Williams to pump sales. As the event got underway, 93 percent of transactions were done via mobile.

Analysts are expecting another record day on Alibaba’s platforms, with Citigroup Inc. predicting a 31 percent rise in transactions to 158 billion yuan ($23.8 billion). While that’s only half of last year’s growth rate, it still dwarfs other events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Billionaire founder Jack Ma is using this year’s event as a testing ground for his plans to revamp China’s $4 trillion traditional retail sector with technology, an experiment that could help the behemoth gain an edge in China’s saturated retail market.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-2-minutes

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Alibaba buys 36.2 per cent stake in Wal-Mart style hypermarket chain for US$2.9 billion
Sun Art Retail shares plunge 14pc before paring losses to 4pc in afternoon trade

Laura He
PUBLISHED : Monday, 20 November, 2017, 11:28am
UPDATED : Monday, 20 November, 2017, 2:31pm

Alibaba Group Holding said on Monday it will acquire a combined 36.16 per cent stake in Sun Art Retail, China’s biggest Wal-Mart-style hypermarket operator, for HK$22.4 billion (US$2.88 billion), in what will be the e-commerce giant’s latest effort to expand its brick-and-mortar retailing.

Taobao China Holding, a subsidiary of Alibaba, has agreed to buy a direct 26 per cent stake from Kofu and Concord Greater China for HK$16.1 billion, at HK$6.5 a share, while it will also buy a 19.9 per cent stake in French company Auchan Retail, which owns 51 per cent of Sun Art, for HK$6.3 billion, also at HK$6.5 per share, according to an exchange filing by Sun Art.

In August, Amazon bought US upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods Market for US$13.7 billion, the biggest acquisition in the e-commerce giant’s history, in an aggressive push further into physical stores and merge online and offline retail.

More details in http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/a...chain-us29

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Alibaba buys stake in Indian online grocer BigBasket, seeking to extend ‘new retail’ footprint
Alibaba buys undisclosed stake in India’s online grocer BigBasket, sources tell the Post

Li Tao
PUBLISHED : Friday, 08 December, 2017, 4:02pm
UPDATED : Friday, 08 December, 2017, 4:11pm

Alibaba Group Holding, China’s largest e-commerce platform that operates online marketplace Taobao and offline Hema supermarkets, is extending its “new retail” footprint to India by investing in local online grocer BigBasket, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Alibaba is among investors pumping cash into the Indian grocery site, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information is private, without identifying the investors.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval, the source said.

Vipul Parekh, a co-founder of BigBasket, did not immediately respond to an email query sent by the South China Morning Post.

More details in http://www.scmp.com/tech/article/2123484...new-retail

[Wildreamz]

Alibaba Group Announces December Quarter 2017 Results - FY2018 3Q
http://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/earnings
https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BABA/earnings
As per Seekingalpha numbers, for the quarter:
Revenue +51.5% (y-o-y)
EPS + 25% (y-o-y)
P/E (TTM) = 40.8 (assuming $192.5/share)

Ant Financial
We have agreed to a 33% equity stake in Ant Financial that will strengthen our strategic relationship pursuant to the series of agreements reached with Ant Financial in 2014.

We believe deepening our relationship through an equity stake in Ant Financial would bring key strategic benefits to us, including advancing our New Retail strategy with mobile payments, increasing user acquisition and retention through collaboration with the Alipay digital wallet (“Alipay Wallet”), and enhancing the execution of our international expansion. In addition, the equity stake in Ant Financial enables Alibaba and our shareholders to participate in the future growth of the financial technology sector.

During the December 2017 quarter, Ant Financial continued to deliver rapid revenue growth from its key businesses including digital payment, wealth management and consumer finance. During the quarter, Ant Financial successfully executed an aggressive user growth plan that resulted in substantial new user additions and increased user engagement. As a result of the user growth initiatives, in December 2017, Alipay Wallet’s daily active users more than doubled on a year-over-year basis. We expect that Ant Financial will continue to invest to expand its market leadership in digital payment, develop new technologies for inclusive financial services, and accelerate its globalization strategy.

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Tencent growth in the recent quarters had been more impressive. But long term, I am still bullish with the companies growth trajectory and growing importance to the Chinese economy.

(vested)

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Alibaba to Buy Out Baidu in China's Top Food Takeout App

By Lulu Yilun Chen
February 26, 2018, 6:47 PM GMT+8 Updated on February 26, 2018, 7:46 PM GMT+8

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has agreed to buy out Baidu Inc. and other investors in Chinese startup Ele.me to shore up its delivery network, a person familiar with the matter said, placing its biggest bet yet in online food and local services.

An acquisition would hand Alibaba the biggest chunk of Chinese online food delivery and pit it directly against Meituan Dianping, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. Ele.me -- which means “hungry yet?” -- runs an army of delivery people on motorbikes across the country that could enhance Alibaba’s last-mile ability to get parcels to customers’ doorsteps and complement its Koubei neighborhood services business.

The e-commerce giant, which owned 23 percent of Ele.me as of May, plans to buy the stock from existing investors including Baidu, the person said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. It’s unclear how much Alibaba agreed to pay, but Ele.me was said to have been valued at between $5.5 billion to $6 billion in a May fundraising last year. The startup then bought Baidu’s delivery business at a $500 million valuation in August 2017, a person familiar said at the time.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...er-backers

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Alibaba puts top executive in charge of Lazada in Southeast Asia push
Lucy Peng Lei, who heads Alibaba’s financial arm Ant Financial, takes over as chief executive of e-commerce platform operator Lazada as Alibaba steps up its push into Southeast Asia

Li Tao
PUBLISHED : Monday, 19 March, 2018, 12:22pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 20 March, 2018, 10:21am

Alibaba Group Holding put one of its top executives in charge of Lazada Group, the leading online commerce operator in Southeast Asia, as the Chinese tech giant accelerates its expansion into a region with more than 600 million consumers.

Lucy Peng Lei, who is now chairman of Lazada, will take over as chief executive after Alibaba acquired control of the company in 2016 with an investment of US$1 billion and further increased its stake to 83 per cent with another US$1 billion last year. Lazada founder Maximilian Bittner will move into an advisory role.

The Hangzhou-based company said on Monday it will invest an additional US$2 billion in Lazada to speed up its growth plans and deepen its integration with Alibaba’s other businesses. Chinese technology companies see Southeast Asia as a huge new market. The region consists of 11 countries with a total population of 653.4 million, about 49 per cent of which live in urban areas, according to the latest United Nations estimates.

More details in http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/a...-asia-push

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Ant Is Worth 50% More Than Goldman With $150 Billion Valuation

Bloomberg News
April 11, 2018, 1:16 PM GMT+8

Ant Financial’s latest round of funding, reported to involve Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte, is said to value the Chinese provider of mobile payments at about $150 billion -- 50 percent more than Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s market capitalization.

That would not only make Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group the world’s most-valuable startup, it would jump the payments business founded by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma into the top 15 among banks, insurers and credit providers by market value.

Ant Financial is seeking to raise at least $10 billion in a funding round, according to reports by Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. At a $150 billion valuation, the operator of Alipay and a money-market fund would rank 14th among financial-service firms.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...-valuation