Alibaba Acquires Controlling Stake in Sun Art
Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988, “Alibaba” or “Alibaba Group”) today announced it will invest approximately USD3.6 billion in respect of Sun Art Retail Group Limited (HKEX: 6808, “Sun Art”), a leading hypermarket and supermarket operator in China, that will raise its aggregate direct and indirect stake to approximately 72%1. This transaction demonstrates Alibaba’s continued commitment to Sun Art, and its New Retail strategy by further integrating online and offline resources in China’s retail sector.
As part of the transaction, Alibaba will acquire 70.94% of equity interest in A-RT Retail Holdings Limited (“A-RT”) from Auchan Retail International S.A. and its subsidiary (“Auchan Retail”) valued at approximately HKD28.0 billion (USD3.6 billion). A-RT holds approximately 51% of the equity interest in Sun Art. Following the transaction, Alibaba will consolidate Sun Art in its financial statements. Additionally, Peter Huang has been appointed Chairman of Sun Art in addition to his current role as Chief Executive Officer.
Daniel Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, said: “Alibaba’s strategic investment in Sun Art in 2017 was an important step in our New Retail strategy. The alliance we formed with Auchan Retail and Ruentex was instrumental in building a robust infrastructure to create opportunities and value in China’s retail sector. Led by Chief Executive Officer Peter Huang, Sun Art has achieved impressive results in its digitalization, and pursued promising synergies with businesses across the Alibaba digital economy. As the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digitalization of consumer lifestyles and enterprise operations, this commitment to Sun Art serves to strengthen our New Retail vision and serve more consumers with a fully integrated experience.”
In November 2017, Alibaba Group, Auchan Retail and Ruentex Group announced a strategic alliance to digitalize and introduce New Retail solutions at Sun Art stores, including omnichannel integration and a more personalized customer experience. Over the past three years, Sun Art has made significant progress in the digital transformation under a fast-changing market environment by leveraging resources and technology from the Alibaba ecosystem, to capitalize on the growth opportunities in China’s hypermarket and supermarket space.
Today, all Sun Art physical stores in China have been integrated into Alibaba’s Taoxianda and Tmall Supermarket platforms, providing one-hour and half-day on-demand delivery through deep collaboration with other key businesses across the Alibaba ecosystem, including Ele.me and Cainiao, offering consumers greater product selection and access. As of June 30, 2020, Sun Art operates 481 hypermarkets and 3 mid-size supermarkets in China, with a focus on strengthening its position through small and offline community stores.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba and that it will be a good company that lasts for 102 years.
1Including the stake held by Alibaba Group and its related party.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201018005074/en/
Contact information
Ivy Ke
Alibaba Group
+852 5590 9949
Ivy.ke@alibaba-inc.com
Cathy Yan
Alibaba Group
+852 9012 5806
cathy.yan@alibaba-inc.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Rimini Street to Report Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results on February 19, 202626.1.2026 20:46:00 EET | Press release
Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), the Software Support and Agentic AI ERP Company™, and the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP and VMware software, today announced it will report earnings after market close on February 19, 2026. The company will host a conference call and webcast on that date to discuss the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 results and the 2026 outlook at 5:00 p.m. Eastern / 2:00 p.m. Pacific time. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260126188817/en/ Rimini Street to Report Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results on February 19, 2026 A live webcast of the event will be available on Rimini Street’s Investor Relations site via the Rimini Street IR events link and directly via the webcast link. Dial-in participants can access the conference by dialing 1-800-836-8184. A replay of the webcast will be available for one year following the event. About Rimini Street, In
SES Acknowledges Fitch’s Rating Action and Reiterates Deleveraging Plan26.1.2026 20:07:00 EET | Press release
SES S.A. (“SES” or the “Company”), a leading space solutions company, acknowledges the credit rating action announced by Fitch today, which follows the release of SES’ Q3 2025 results and Intelsat integration update. SES continues to be rated investment grade by Fitch with a stable outlook. SES management reiterates that the Company continues to execute on its strategy with a clear plan to strengthen its key credit metrics over time. The Company also has a clear view of the multiple cash generating levers available to it that it believes can substantially support and accelerate the deleveraging plan. SES management will use these levers in a disciplined way and keep investors informed as they deliver on the strategic plan. Consistent with this plan, it remains management’s intention to delever, with a policy objective of reducing adjusted net leverage(1) to at least 3.0x or below. (1) Adjusted net leverage is defined as Adjusted Net Debt divided by Adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted Net Debt is
A2RL Drone Championship Sets the Pace for AI in Autonomous Flight26.1.2026 19:17:00 EET | Press release
The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL) Drone Championship delivered a decisive test of autonomous and human performance, as Technology Innovation Institute’s TII Racing set the fastest autonomous lap to win the AI Speed Challenge, while a human first-person-view (FPV) pilot, MinChan Kim – World FPV Champion, narrowly claimed victory in the Human vs AI finale. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260126735530/en/ A2RL Drone Championship Sets the Pace for AI in Autonomous Flight (Photo: AETOSWire) Organised by ASPIRE, the innovation acceleration arm of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), the event highlighted both the rapid progress of vision-based autonomy and the narrow margins that still separate human instinct from machine execution at speed. Held over two days on 21–22 January during UMEX, the A2RL Championship brought together leading AI research teams and world-class FPV pilots to compete a
Zayed Sustainability Prize Opens Global Call for Submissions for 2027 Cycle26.1.2026 17:25:00 EET | Press release
The Zayed Sustainability Prize, an affiliate of Erth Zayed Philanthropies and the UAE’s pioneering global award for sustainability and humanitarian innovation, has opened submissions for its 2027 cycle. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260126912976/en/ Winners of the 2026 Zayed Sustainability Prize (Photo: AETOSWire) The Prize carries forward the vision and legacy of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, by supporting those advancing a more inclusive and sustainable world. Now in its 18th year and with a total of US $7.2 million in funds, the Prize invites small and medium enterprises, nonprofit organisations, and high schools to submit innovative solutions across six categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action, and Global High Schools. Commenting on the launch of the 2027 submissions cycle, H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and
2026 Japan Prize: Two U.S. Scientists and One Japanese Scientist Awarded26.1.2026 16:00:00 EET | Press release
The Japan Prize Foundation announced the winners of the 2026 Japan Prize at 1:00 p.m. on 21 January 2026. Prof. Cynthia Dwork (USA) has been awarded the Japan Prize in the field of Electronics, Information, and Communication. Prof. Shizuo Akira (Japan) and Prof. Zhijian "James" Chen (USA) have been awarded the Japan Prize in the field of Life Sciences. For this year’s Japan Prize, Prof. Dwork is being recognized for her Contribution to leading research for building an ethical digital society, including differential privacy and fairness. Prof. Akira and Prof. Chen are being recognized for their Discovery of the nucleic acid sensing mechanism by the innate immune system. For the 2026 Japan Prize, the Foundation asked approximately 16,000 prominent scientists and engineers from around the world to nominate researchers working in this year’s fields. We received 107 nominations for the field of Electronics, Information, and Communication, and 185 nominations for the field of Life Sciences.
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom