Alibaba invests 2,900 million in important Chinese supermarket chain

The giant of the electronic commerce Alibaba announced today the investment of 2,880 million dollars (2,450 million euros) in supermarkets managed by the Chinese chain Sun Art, as part of its strategy of being more and more present in physical stores.

Shanghai (China), Nov 20 (EFE) .- The giant of electronic commerce Alibaba announced today the investment of 2,880 million dollars (2,450 million euros) in supermarkets managed by the Chinese chain Sun Art, as part of its strategy to be increasingly present in physical stores.

The Alibaba Group, Auchan Retail and Ruentex Group announced the strategic alliance who will join their online and offline experience to explore new retail opportunities in the food sector in China.

As part of this partnership, Alibaba Group will invest a total of 22,400 million Hong Kong dollars (about 2,880 million dollars, 2,450 million euros) to obtain a direct and indirect aggregate participation of 36.16% in Sun Art, acquiring shares of Ruentex.

With this agreement Auchan Retail will also increase its stake in Sun Art, so after the transaction Auchan Retail, Alibaba Group and Ruentex will have approximately 36.18%, 36.16% and 4.67% of Sun Art, respectively.

This company operates 446 hypermarkets in 29 Chinese provinces under the brands of RT-Mart and Auchan.

"Alibaba is pleased to join our new partners to redefine traditional retail through digital transformation," said the executive director of Alibaba Group, Daniel Zhang, in a statement.

In his opinion, the consumer experience in physical stores can and should be improved through data-driven technology. To fully integrate online and physical channels together with our partners, we hope to offer a delicious and original shopping experience to Chinese consumers. "

Combining The resources of the three companies, the statement said, the new alliance will allow Sun Art's activities to benefit from Alibaba's digital ecosystem.

Therefore, the stores managed by the company will be digitized and data intelligence will be introduced to provide a more personalized customer experience.