Alibaba to invest HK$5.37b in retailer Intime

Intime Retail Co Ltd announced that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is going to buy a 9.9 percent stake in the Chinese department store operator.

The department store operator said Alibaba will invest HK$5.37 billion ($692.25 million) in the group and form a joint venture to develop online-to-offline (O2O) business.

Intime will issue 220.54 million shares at HK$7.5335 each and HK$3.71 billion worth of convertible bonds to a unit of Alibaba, the Hong Kong-listed company said in a filing to the stock exchange on Monday.

The two will form a joint venture to develop shopping malls, department stores and supermarkets related to online-to-offline business in China, Intime said.

Intime shares which have suspended trading since last Thursday rallied by as much as 16 percent in Monday's morning trading session before heading to the red territory.