Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA appreciated 41. 7% over the last one year compared with the Zacks Internet Commerce industry's gain of 40. 8%. This outperformance was largely backed by the company's near monopoly in the Chinese e - commerce market and strengthening position beyond it.
Alibaba is now expanding its international footprint by putting cash into India's Paytm E - Commerce, the e - commerce wing of the Paytm group.
Alibaba. com Singapore E - Commerce Pvt Ltd, one of the retail giant's 40 subsidiaries and consolidated entities, has already poured $177 million for almost 36. 3% stake in Paytm E - Commerce. Alibaba and its associates also hold the largest chunk of One97 Communications' share, which in turn has a stake in Paytm E - commerce. Paytm has also raised $23 million from venture capital fund SAIF Partners by selling its 4. 66% stake.
The investment in Paytm also diversifies Alibaba's business as e - commerce growth has slowed down in China. Besides buying stakes of e - commerce companies and pushing its AliExpress site in emerging markets, the company is also exploring the offline retail space. Last month, the company entered into a strategic partnership with Bailian Group to leverage on its big data capacities and to explore new retail opportunities across outlet design, technology research and development, customer relationship management, supply chain management, payment and logistics.
It has also partnered with Intime Retail Group Co Ltd founder, Shen Guojun, in a 2. 6 billion bid to privatize Intime and purchased a stake in grocery chain Sanjiang Shopping Club Co Ltd. We also see Alibaba's growing interest in the global logistics business. The company has been exploring this space with investments in couriers and warehouses in the recent years. It has opened its own logistics service known as Alibaba Logistics.
Recently, the company sealed a partnership with Maersk, a unit of Denmark's A. P. Moller - Maersk and the world's biggest container shipping line, to offer online reservation of space on Maersk's vessels. The service eliminates freight forwarders from the booking process and limits their services to haulage. It seems that Alibaba is keeping its door open for other business arenas, in case the online retail industry hits a roadblock.
Click here to download the app: Aliexpress
Doubts on this article
