Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. agreed to sell its shares in Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. to private equity firm DCP Capital, unloading another high-profile physical commerce asset at a discount to focus on its core online business.
China’s e-commerce pioneer expects gross proceeds of up to HK$12.3 billion ($1.6 billion) from selling its more than 70% holding in the chain of Costco-like hypermart stores. That’s significantly less than the $3.6 billion Alibaba paid just to double its stake in Sun Art in 2020, and falls far short of Sun Art’s 2024 market value of about $3 billion. The Chinese retailer’s shares sank as much as 35% in early Hong Kong trading, while Alibaba slid more than 1%.
