Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has invested a further US$845 million into Lazada, its Southeast Asian e-commerce subsidiary, intensifying the competitive landscape involving players like Amazon.com Inc. and Sea Ltd.
This capital infusion, made public in a Singaporean regulatory filing on Wednesday, contributes to the multi-billion dollar investment Alibaba has allocated to Lazada since taking over the firm in 2016.
Efforts were made to gather comments on the situation from both Alibaba and Lazada. Despite reaching out to their respective representatives for further insights and clarifications, there were no responses forthcoming from either side.
Lazada forms a part of Alibaba’s international e-commerce division which is being prepped for a potential US initial public offering.
The Chinese tech titan is being reorganized into six divisions to stimulate growth across various sectors, including online shopping, logistics, and cloud computing.
In light of various strategic assessments and past deliberations, e-commerce giant Alibaba has been contemplating the prospect of initiating a spin-off of its subsidiary, Lazada.
The entity, acquired in stages from Rocket Internet SE, ranks among Alibaba’s most conspicuous international brands. It rivals Amazon and Shopee, owned by Sea, in Southeast Asian territories such as Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
In 2022, discussions occurred within Alibaba about raising at least $1 billion for Lazada, but these talks with potential investors fell apart due to disagreements over the company’s worth.
The plan was to secure this funding as a stepping stone towards a spinoff. Instead, Alibaba put aside the fundraising idea and opted to inject more capital into Lazada.
