Alibaba to Sell Intime Stores for $1 Billion, Incurring $1.3 Billion Loss
Alibaba sells Intime stores to Youngor Fashion for $1 billion, incurring a $1.3 billion loss. This move is part of the company’s ongoing strategy to focus on core business areas.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has agreed to sell its Intime department store business to Youngor Fashion Co. for approximately $1 billion, marking a significant move to streamline operations and offload non-core assets. The 7.4 billion yuan ($1 billion) deal, announced on Tuesday, comes with a heavy loss for Alibaba, which will record a 9.3 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) loss on its original investment in Intime.
This sale follows Alibaba’s strategy of refocusing its efforts on its core businesses as it faces increasing competition from emerging rivals like PDD Holdings Inc. and ByteDance Ltd. The company’s purchase of Intime in 2017 was aimed at creating a seamless integration of online and offline retail, but this vision has evolved under the leadership of CEO Eddie Wu, who took over the role in 2023. Wu’s leadership has shifted the company’s focus to consolidating and investing in areas with the highest growth potential.
Alibaba has been offloading non-essential assets, including its stake in Intime, as part of its broader restructuring efforts. The move to integrate its domestic and international ecommerce businesses under the leadership of Jiang Fan is part of a long-term strategy to streamline operations. While combining online and offline commerce was a major goal under former CEO Daniel Zhang, the company has gradually moved away from this direction in recent years, considering the sale of Intime as early as February.
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Shares of Alibaba in Hong Kong dropped by as much as 2.1% following the announcement, before recovering slightly to trade 0.8% lower by 3:50 p.m.
This sale is part of Alibaba’s broader effort to pivot and refocus its business amid slowing growth in China’s retail sector. Recent data showed that China’s retail sales grew at the slowest pace in three months in November, signaling ongoing challenges in domestic consumer demand. Policymakers in China have prioritized boosting consumption in the coming year, but the retail outlook remains uncertain.
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