Alibaba agrees to merge S.Korean operations with E-Mart in a $4bn deal - Bloomberg

December 26, 2024 09:23 PM AEDT | By Investing

Google News:

Alibaba agrees to merge S.Korean operations with E-Mart in a $4bn deal - Bloomberg

Recent News

Fed Daly eyes fall for possible policy shift

Fifth Third Announces Three-Year, $20M Investment in North Nashville

Inogen Alliance Associate Awards: Environment Analyst Sustainability D...

New Zealand Construction Report 2025: Output to Contract by 1% Due to...

Investing.com -- Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holding is set to merge its South Korean operations with E-Mart’s e-commerce platform to strengthen its position in the country’s competitive online retail landscape.

AliExpress International and Gmarket will form a joint venture, with each company holding a 50% stake, according to an exchange filing by E-Mart (KS:139480), confirming earlier reports by Bloomberg News. Both firms intend to invest further in the partnership, which will take full ownership of Gmarket.

According to Bloomberg, the new venture could carry a valuation of approximately $4 billion.

Following the news, E-Mart shares rose 5.5% in Seoul, bringing the company’s market capitalization to $1.4 billion. Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares climbed 2.6%.

The partnership aims to bolster competition against key domestic players such as Naver Corp (KS:035420). and Coupang LLC (NYSE:CPNG).

Alibaba is pushing to expand internationally as growth in its core Chinese e-commerce segment slows. In the September quarter, the company’s domestic e-commerce business showed weak performance, though gains from its cloud division and international ventures, including Lazada and AliExpress, provided some offset.

The headwinds in the e-commerce space for Alibaba come amid intensifying competition from emerging players like PDD Holdings Inc DRC (NASDAQ:PDD) and ByteDance In response, co-founder Eddie Wu, who has been CEO for over a year, is steering the company toward consolidating its main operations and channeling investments into areas with the highest growth potential.

Last week, Alibaba agreed to sell its Intime department store unit to Youngor Fashion Co. for around $1 billion, part of an effort to streamline its business by shedding non-core assets. The e-commerce giant expects to record a 9.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) loss on its original investment in Intime.

This article first appeared in Investing.com

Disclaimer

The content, including but not limited to any articles, news, quotes, information, data, text, reports, ratings, opinions, images, photos, graphics, graphs, charts, animations and video (Content) is a service of Kalkine Media Pty Ltd (“Kalkine Media, we or us”), ACN 629 651 672 and is available for personal and non-commercial use only. The principal purpose of the Content is to educate and inform. The Content does not contain or imply any recommendation or opinion intended to influence your financial decisions and must not be relied upon by you as such. Some of the Content on this website may be sponsored/non-sponsored, as applicable, but is NOT a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold the stocks of the company(s) or engage in any investment activity under discussion. Kalkine Media is neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice through this platform. Users should make their own enquiries about any investments and Kalkine Media strongly suggests the users to seek advice from a financial adviser, stockbroker or other professional (including taxation and legal advice), as necessary.
The content published on Kalkine Media also includes feeds sourced from third-party providers. Kalkine does not assert any ownership rights over the content provided by these third-party sources. The inclusion of such feeds on the Website is for informational purposes only. Kalkine does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the content obtained from third-party feeds. Furthermore, Kalkine Media shall not be held liable for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the content obtained from third-party feeds, nor for any damages or losses arising from the use of such content.
Kalkine Media hereby disclaims any and all the liabilities to any user for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising from any use of the Content on this website, which is provided without warranties. The views expressed in the Content by the guests, if any, are their own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Kalkine Media. Some of the images/music that may be used on this website are copyrighted to their respective owner(s). Kalkine Media does not claim ownership of any of the pictures displayed/music used on this website unless stated otherwise. The images/music that may be used on this website are taken from various sources on the internet, including paid subscriptions or are believed to be in public domain. We have made reasonable efforts to accredit the source wherever it was indicated as or found to be necessary.
This disclaimer is subject to change without notice. Users are advised to review this disclaimer periodically for any updates or modifications.