Alibaba recently announced that they have agreed to invest US$1B which is a controlling stake at Rocket Internet who owns one of Southeast Asia’s biggest e-commerce/online retail site, Lazada. According to reports, the deal in total will be worth US$1B. This would include US$500 million worth of newly issued stocks from Lazada and shares from existing shareholders.
The breakdown of sale of shareholders to Alibaba are as follows:
- Rocket Internet will be selling its 9.1% stake in Lazada for US$137Million, they will still have a remaining 8.8% stake.
- Tesco will be selling its 8.6% share for US$127 Million stake in Lazada. This brings Tesco’s remaining stake at 8.3%.
What It Means For Alibaba
The investment of Alibaba in Lazada means that this e-commerce company will be expanding its market to Southeast Asia. Lazada is known to be one of the largest e-commerce company in Southeast Asia and with the investment by Alibaba it will surely help the latter in expanding its market.
What It Means for Lazada
With this new investment from Alibaba it means that the company will be able to use the investment to improve their services and expand their reach through Southeast Asia. According to Max Bittner, Lazada’s CEO “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.”
