Alibaba leads US$2.55bil bid for Chinese retailer Intime

Active interest in Intime: The Alibaba group currently holds 27.82% of the company. Pictured is Ma.

HONG KONG: E-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and the founder of Intime Retail Group Co Ltd have jointly bid to take the Chinese department store operator private for HK$19.79bil (RM11.4bil), the partners said on Tuesday.

Alibaba Investment Ltd and Shen Guo Jun have offered HK$10 (RM5.70) per Intime share. That would represent 42.25% more than the stock's last price of HK$7.03 (RM4.04) on Dec 28 when trading was suspended pending an announcement. The stock price surged 35% when trading resumed on Tuesday.