AFP, Beijing :
Alibaba said on Monday it would take a major stake in one of China’s top food sellers for $2.9 billion as the e-commerce giant expands further into the retail world.
China’s largest e-commerce platform has invested heavily in recent years to connect its online and offline portfolio of businesses, taking stakes in several Chinese grocers, shopping malls and department stores.
Alibaba will buy a 36 percent stake in Sun Art Retail Group from Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex Group, leaving Alibaba and French firm Auchan Retail with roughly equal stakes in Sun Art’s 446 hypermarkets that sell everything from groceries to clothes.
Sun Art also operates smaller superstores and is building a line of unmanned stores.
Hangzhou-based Alibaba has bet its future on uniting online and offline selling, executing the strategy well before US-based Amazon made its first major purchase of bricks and mortar grocer Whole Foods earlier this year.
