Chinese Alibaba paid almost 880 million euro to get a majority stake in Lazada, the fastest growing online department store in Southeast Asia founded by Rocket Internet.
New and fast-growing market
Its investment in Lazada means Alibaba has now turned its focus towards the Southeast Asian market. Online sales in countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are skyrocketing. Thanks to the investment, Lazada is now worth 1.3 billion euro after Rocket Internet, Tesco and Kinnevik Investment sold a slice of their shares to Alibaba. The company also has the choice to obtain nearly all other shares over the next 18 months.
“Southeast Asia is an attractive mobile-driven consumer market that is highly fragmented”, said Max Bittner, CEO of Lazada Group. “The transaction will help us to accelerate our goal to provide the 560 million consumers in the region access to the broadest and most unique assortment of products. Furthermore, leveraging Alibaba’s unique knowhow and technology will allow us to rapidly improve our services.”
