BEIJING (Reuters) – China Alibaba (NYSE:) Group Holding Ltd said on Wednesday it agreed to sell its majority stake in hypermarket chain Sun Art Retail Group (OTC:) to Chinese private equity firm DCP Capital for HK$12.298 billion (1.58 billions of dollars).
The 78.7% share represents the holding held by Alibaba's subsidiaries, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing.
Alibaba paid $3.6 billion for a controlling stake in Sun Art in 2020 in hopes of expanding its digital presence to support hundreds of Sun Art hypermarkets in China.
The divestiture comes after an 85% jump in Sun Art shares in Hong Kong over the past year, which has easily beaten the roughly 20% rise in the prior.
The e-commerce giant is also selling its Chinese department store unit Intime even as it books a loss on the deal.
The sale of the stake is part of Alibaba's restructuring of its business portfolio to focus on its core e-commerce activities.
($1 = 7.7677 Hong Kong dollars)