Deals
Tencent to Buy Part of Supermart Chain in Rare Retail Foray
- China’s largest internet firm to buy 5% of China’s Yonghui
- The acquisition boosts Tencent’s market share in payments
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Tencent Holdings Ltd. will acquire a stake in Chinese supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores Co. for about 4.22 billion yuan ($638 million), a rare incursion into a physical retail arena coveted by rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
China’s largest internet corporation is buying about 5 percent of Yonghui from existing shareholders at 8.81 yuan apiece, Yonghui said in an exchange filing Friday, a 9.9 percent discount to its price before trading was halted on Dec. 8. The investment -- a rare foray into traditional retail for a company known for games and messaging service WeChat -- may be intended to drive adoption of its digital payments service in stores. Yonghui surged by the daily limit in Shanghai.