Alibaba will invest $ 4.6 billion in Chinese retailer Suning and enter into a cooperation agreement

Alibaba Group will acquire a stake in the business of the largest Chinese retailer of electronics and home appliances Suning Commerce Group . Holding bought 19.9% ​​of the shares for $ 4.6 billion, expanding its influence in the local market. Alibaba will pay 15.23 yuan per share, which is 10% more expensive than the value of Suning shares at the close of trading on Friday. Suning also plans to spend about $ 2.5 billion on the purchase of a 1.1% stake in Alibaba.

Cooperation will be beneficial to both companies: by combining their logistics networks, they will be able to reduce the time of delivery of goods to two hours. Suning will cooperate with the logistics branch of Alibaba Cainiao, which will cover all 2,800 districts and regions of the country, reports Bloomberg.

"This alliance is a new commerce model that fully integrates online and offline," said Ali Ma Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alibaba, Jack Ma.
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The Suning network includes more than 1,600 retail outlets in 289 cities in China. In addition to technology, they sell books and products for children.

This is the largest deal in the history of Alibaba after the share buyback from Yahoo! in 2012, for which $ 7.1 billion was spent.