Two listed units of the Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) yesterday confirmed that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) would acquire a 36.16 percent stake in their joint venture that operates a hypermarket chain in China.
Together with France-based Auchan SA, the Taiwanese conglomerate runs its retail business in China through Sun Art Retail Group Ltd (高鑫零售), which has 446 hypermarkets in the Chinese market under the RT-Mart (大潤發) and Auchan (歐尚) banners, a joint company statement said.
Alibaba has agreed to buy a stake in Sun Art for US$2.88 billion from two major units of the group, garment maker Ruentex Industries Ltd (潤泰全球) and property developer Ruentex Development Co (潤泰創新), Ruentex officials told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Ruentex Industries and Ruentex Development are expected to book NT$16.8 billion (US$558 million) and NT$11.2 billion in profit respectively through the deal, the Ruentex Group said.
The transaction, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, would make Alibaba the second-largest shareholder of Sun Art, replacing Ruentex.
Ruentex would still have a 4.67 percent share in Sun Art after the acquisition, while Auchan SA would hold the remaining 36.18 percent, the statement said.
Shares in Ruentex Industries rose 1.89 percent to close at NT$53.8 in Taipei trading yesterday after the announcement, while Ruentex Development’s shares climbed 4.09 percent to NT$33.05, market data showed.
However, Hong Kong-listed Sun Art saw its stock fall by 4.07 percent to HK$8.25.
The deal is seen as part of Alibaba’s efforts to form a retail alliance with Auchan SA and Ruentex to explore business opportunities in China’s retail sector by blending online and offline shopping services for that nation’s 1.3 billion people.
“Ruentex is delighted to see the win-win collaboration between Sun Art and Alibaba with high synergies in online and offline that will meet the needs of consumers for a better life with better products and services and higher efficiency,” Ruentex Group vice chairman Peter Huang (黃明端) said in a statement.
“Physical stores serve an indispensable role during the consumer journey, and should be enhanced through data-driven technology and personalized services in the digital economy,” Alibaba chief executive officer Daniel Zhang (張勇) said.
This was not the first time that Alibaba formed a partnership with leading retailers that run brick-and-mortar stores in China to expand its presence in the retail industry there.
In February, the e-commerce giant announced that it has teamed up with Shanghai Bailian Group Co (百聯集團), one of China’s largest supermarket and department store chains, in a bid to transform the outdated retail industry.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last