Alibaba takes over China's top hypermart chain for $3.6 billion

Paris: China’s e-commerce behemoth Alibaba has bought a controlling $3.6 billion stake in Sun Art which runs hundreds of hypermarkets on the mainland for French shopping giant Auchan. The move to take a 72% holding in Sun Art tightens Alibaba’s grip on China’s vast e-commerce sector as it looks to soak up the new customers pushed online to buy groceries, fresh food and healthcare products by the coronavirus.

It also hands over control of 140 million square feet of retail space in scores of cities across the country. Sun Art was created by Auchan in 2000 with Ruentex Group and joined in an “alliance” with Alibaba in 2017. That tie-in gave the Chinese firm ownership of around a third of the hypermaket company. Alibaba quickly set about transforming Sun Art from a traditional bricks-and-mortar hypermarket to an online groceries hub, matching its wider e-commerce goods business.