Alibaba’s Been Cramming in the Deals Over the Holiday Season

(Bloomberg) — While many consumers load up on goods in the holidays, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has been busy selling assets, even if it means taking a loss. 

The Chinese tech firm kicked off 2025 by announcing the sale of its more than 70% stake in hypermarket chain Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. at a big discount to its $3 billion value. A couple of weeks earlier, it agreed to sell department store business Intime Retail Group Co. at a loss of $1.3 billion. 

The flurry of festive season transactions also included forming a $4 billion joint venture with E-Mart Inc.’s e-commerce platform Gmarket in South Korea. 

Alibaba’s busy patch, in addition to being a boost for bankers and other arrangers involved, follows its record convertible bond issue in May. Six months later, it sold its first public dollar bonds in years as well as offshore yuan notes for a combined total of nearly $5 billion.

The transactions in the space of a little more than half a year show that Alibaba is revving up a deals machine that had languished since 2020, when Beijing accused it of monopolistic behavior and clamped down on the growing influence of tech firms. With that crackdown now running its course, China is once more encouraging tech investment to revive the economy and drive AI research.

Alibaba’s statement on the Sun Art sale described it as “a good opportunity” to monetize non-core assets. With Alibaba more closely integrating its e-commerce operations and looking to raise capital, further activity could be on the horizon.

“The recent non-core asset disposals signal Alibaba’s clear focus on technology, e-commerce and AI as Eddie Wu steps into his second year as CEO of the firm,” Bloomberg Intelligence Catherine Lim said. 

Alibaba’s shares dipped 1.3% Thursday in Hong Kong, but bounced back with a gain of as much as 3% Friday, the biggest jump since Dec. 24. 

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