In its latest investment plans, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), the largest ecommerce company of the world is all set to initiate positions in the state-run insurance company, New China Life Insurance. The shares of Alibaba soared in excess of 3 percent after the announcement.
Right from its first IPO in September last year, Alibaba has continued investment spree in every single industry. The investment arm of the government, Central Huijin Investment Ltd, is in talks with Ecommerce Company over selling of an undisclosed company share. Central Huijin holds 31.34 percent share in New China Life Insurance, which has a current market cap of $24 billion and offers life insurance services and products.
This is not the first time when Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) has shown interest in the insurance industry. Earlier, Alibaba along with Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG:0700) and other investors’ consortium invested up to $4.7 billion in Ping An Insurance (Grp) Co of China Ltd. (HKG:2318).
There is no official confirmation from the ecommerce company and New China Life Insurance about a potential deal. However, New China Life Insurance applied for the suspension of trading on January 19 as the company was undergoing some negotiations that are likely to change its shareholder structure.
Finance and ecommerce are not the only two fields gaining investments from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA). The ecommerce giant is equally interested in offering digital content in the country and collaborated with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) for gaining licenses to broadcast the entertainment company’s content in China.
In addition to it, Alibaba is backing taxi booking app, Kuaidi Dache, which is among one of the fastest growing taxi booking apps in the country. In addition to it, the company is backing a group-services seller company Meituan.com, which raised $700 million in its recent round of funding.
This article has been written by Prakash Pandey.
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