Alibaba has acquired all outstanding shares that it does not already own in Ele.me, a Chinese online delivery platform.
The transaction implies the enterprise value of Ele.me is US$9.5bn.
Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, said, “We are excited for Ele.me to become a part of the Alibaba ecosystem. Under the leadership of its founder and management team, Ele.me has achieved leading market share in China’s online food delivery and local services sector.”
Ele.me’s fast local delivery service will build on its core expertise in food delivery to provide consumers with a wider range of products and services on-demand. This expansion of offerings will allow Ele.me to efficiently utilize its large delivery force that currently fulfills orders in cities across China.
Ele.me will continue to operate in its own brand and work closely with its existing partners and merchants. Alibaba will lend its full support to Ele.me including access to its New Retail infrastructure, product offerings and technology expertise.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Zhang Xuhao will become Chairman of Ele.me and special advisor to Alibaba’s CEO on New Retail strategy. Wang Lei, Vice President of Alibaba Group, will become chief executive of Ele.me. Wang joined Alibaba in 2003 and has held a number of senior positions in Alibaba’s consumer e-commerce, B2B, O2O service and healthcare businesses.
Source: Alibaba
