Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Chinese ecommerce group Alibaba, has added one of China’s most successful football clubs to his bulging shopping basket ahead of a planned blockbuster US listing this year.
Alibaba has agreed to buy 50 per cent of Guangzhou’s Evergrande football club for Rmb1.2bn ($192m) as it diversifies beyond the internet in an effort to bolster its appeal ahead of its keenly anticipated initial public offering.
It is unclear whether the stake is meant to complement Alibaba’s core business, which increasingly focuses on entertainment, or whether the football club is simply a trophy asset.
Mr Ma said he had bought the football team in pursuit of “health and happiness”, but an analyst suggested it was a marketing move.
Ricky Lai, an analyst at Hong Kong-based Guotai Junan International Holdings, said he thought Mr Ma was mainly interested in the publicity Alibaba would gain “by having the corporate name on winning football jerseys”.
During a press conference to announce the deal with real estate tycoon Xu Jiayin, who bought the club in 2010, Mr Ma said: “Investing in soccer is investing in happiness.”
He added: “I think not understanding soccer doesn’t matter. I also didn’t understand retail, ecommerce or the internet [before investing in them].”
Alibaba accounts for about 80 per cent of transactions in China’s ecommerce market and is expected to be valued at anywhere from $80bn to $150bn when it lists. No date has been set for the IPO, but analysts expect it to be sometime in the third quarter.
Following its purchase by Evergrande Real Estate, Evergrande FC has become one of China’s most successful football clubs under the leadership of former Italian national team coach Marcello Lippi. Last year it became the first Chinese team to win the Asian Champions League.
Alibaba has spent $6bn in the past year on acquisitions, primarily in the internet sphere. In April it snapped up an 18 per cent stake in Youku Tudou, China’s largest video hosting website, for $1.2bn. In March it paid more than $800m for a 60 per cent share of Hong Kong-listed ChinaVision Media Group, securing the rights to a trove of television shows, films and games. And in February Alibaba said it would take control of AutoNavi, a mapping software group, in a $1.6bn deal. It has also bought stakes in four US-based ecommerce companies including ShopRunner, a delivery group.
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