CHINAUS AFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Business\Companies

Alibaba to take Intime private

China Daily | Updated: 2017-01-11 09:36

Alibaba to take Intime private

A customer exits an Intime department store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Xu Kangping/For China Daily]

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is leading a bid to take department store operator Intime Retail Group Co private, as China's largest online retailer seeks to deepen its integration with bricks-and-mortar stores.

Alibaba and Intime's founder Shen Guojun will pay HK$10 ($1.29) for the Intime shares they do not already own, according to a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The offer represents a 42 percent premium over the last closing price, and the maximum amount of cash required, including options, is about HK$19.8 billion.

Alibaba and Intime have been building their relationship for years. Alibaba originally took a stake in the retailer in 2014.

The partnership already gives Alibaba access to Intime's inventory and allows its online customers to pick up orders from physical stores. Privatization will allow Intime to work more closely on integrating online and offline shopping with a separate group of shareholders.

Intime shares, which were halted since Dec 28 pending an announcement, had fallen 8 percent in 2016.

Bloomberg

BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US