With competition escalating in China’s fiercely competitive e-commerce business, Alibaba has reportedly stated that it has agreed to sell department store chain Intime for a US $ 1.3 billion loss as the tech giant scales back its activities.
Alibaba announced that Intime would be sold to ‘a consortium of purchasers comprising Youngor Group and members of Intime’s management team’ in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Alibaba is a major participant in China’s enormous e-commerce market, but as its competitors grow and customers try to save money, the Hangzhou-based company has had to contend with more fierce competition in recent years.
Consequently, the business has worked to increase efficiency, in part by selling unnecessary assets. Alibaba, which was founded in 1999 by businessman Jack Ma, underwent its largest restructuring to date last year, dividing the corporation into six separate companies.
It missed projections last month with a modest 5 per cent year-over-year revenue growth in the most recent quarter.
The outlook for more development in the domestic market is complicated by more intense rivalry from regional rivals, such as ByteDance, the developer of TikTok, JD.com, and Temu owner PDD Holdings.
According to official data released Monday, China’s retail sales growth in November fell to 3 per cent year-over-year, falling short of projections as demand in the second-largest economy in the world remains sluggish.
