Alibaba Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding, has received in-principle approval from the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise its stake in Singapore Post (SingPost).
According to an exchange announcement on Thursday(December 15, 2016) , the Singapore Exchange (SGX) approved Alibaba’s listing and quotation of about 107.6 million new shares in SingPost, according to a stock exchange filing.
Targeted for completion by February 28, 2017, this second investment will raise Alibaba’s stake in Singpost to 14.4 per cent from 10.2 per cent at present.
The move comes at a time when the US-based e-commerce major Amazon is preparing to deepen its footprint in Southeast Asia, with the establishment of a presence in Singapore. It is reportedly planning to launch select local services in Singapore in Q1 2017, prior to rolling them out to the rest of the region.
DEALSTREETASIA reported in November 2016 that Amazon was planning to establish itself in the Indonesian market, with a proposed expenditure of up to $600 million.
To date, Amazon has already invested heavily into its India unit and has also been building its business operations in China in preparation for competing with Alibaba Group.
Meanwhile, Lazada was acquired by Alibaba in a $1 billion deal earlier this year in a move aimed at lessening its reliance on the mainland Chinese market. Both Amazon and Alibaba will be seeking to entrench and deepen their footprint in the Indonesian e-commerce space.
With the acquisition of Redmart by Alibaba, for a consideration of between $30 million to $40 million, the competition between the two MNCs is expected to be fierce in the region.
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