Alibaba to sell China’s Sun Art to buyout firm at big discount

ALIBABA Group Holding agreed to sell its shares in Sun Art Retail Group to private equity firm DCP Capital, unloading another high-profile physical commerce asset at a discount to focus on its core online business.

China’s e-commerce pioneer expects gross proceeds of up to HK$12.3 billion (S$2.2 billion) from selling its more than 70 per cent holding in the chain of Costco-like hypermart stores. That’s significantly less than the US$3.6 billion Alibaba paid just to double its stake in Sun Art in 2020, and falls far short of Sun Art’s 2024 market value of about US$3 billion. The Chinese retailer’s shares sank as much as 35 per cent in early Hong Kong trading, while Alibaba slid more than 1 per cent.

The sale accelerates Alibaba’s retreat from physical retail, a major investment initiative spearheaded years ago by previous CEO Daniel Zhang.

The company is now integrating its domestic and international e-commerce operations under the leadership of fast-rising executive Jiang Fan, while steadily selling off holdings it does not consider essential. That last is considered critical enough that Alibaba is willing to swallow significant losses on its past bets, even as it raises capital to invest in areas such as artificial intelligence and the cloud.

Once a dominant player across Chinese commerce, intensifying competition from PDD Holdings and ByteDance have forced Alibaba back to its roots as an online commerce platform.

Under new chief Eddie Wu, Alibaba is focusing investment on areas it considers more promising, from the cloud to online marketplaces. It’s also ramping up abroad, for instance by creating a joint venture to speed up a South Korean expansion.

Just last month, Alibaba agreed to sell its Intime department store business to Youngor Fashion for around US$1 billion, incurring a loss of about 9.3 billion yuan (S$1.7 billion) on its initial investment. Alibaba faces a loss of about US$3 billion overall on its physical retail deals so far, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates.

The sale “is considered to be a good opportunity for Alibaba Group to monetise its non-core assets and to utilise such proceeds to better focus on the development of its core businesses and enhance its shareholder return”, the company said on Wednesday (Jan 1).

Sun Art had attracted suitors such as DCP Capital and Hillhouse Investment, Bloomberg News reported in September.

The company runs hundreds of hypermarkets across China under brands including RT-Mart. It also operates a distribution and storage network that supplement Alibaba’s own efforts in fresh produce.

Alibaba still retains lesser holdings in other traditional Chinese retailers. The electronics chain Suning.com was one of several major brick-and-mortar acquisitions that former CEO Zhang orchestrated. BLOOMBERG