On March 26th, Alibaba Group announced that in order to better strengthen collaboration with Alibaba's e-commerce business and continue to support Cainiao in expanding its global logistics network investment, it has decided to withdraw Cainiao's listing application and make a cash tender offer to acquire all the equity of Cainiao's minority shareholders and the equity already owned by employees. This acquisition involves a total amount of 3.75 billion US dollars (approximately 27.069 billion RMB). This strategy highlights Alibaba's focus on strengthening its core e-commerce business and logistics collaboration, as well as its confidence in investing in future logistics strategies.
Alibaba believes that Cainiao is a component of Alibaba's core business and an important infrastructure for the development of e-commerce. The above adjustments will help Cainiao focus on its business and execute further expansion plans. Alibaba will increase strategic investment in the logistics field to support Cainiao's global logistics network expansion.
On September 26, 2023, according to documents from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network Co., Ltd. submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with joint sponsors being Citigroup, CITIC Securities, and JPMorgan Chase.
According to First Financial News on February 7th this year, Alibaba Group Chairman Cai Chongxin stated in a conference call that Alibaba is not in a hurry to have Cainiao and Hema go public. "We will consider separate financing for different businesses, but we will not act too hastily," said Cai Chongxin. The focus of our strategy now is to promote synergies between different businesses within the group.
On the evening of February 7th, Alibaba Group released its financial report for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year as of December 31, 2023. Among them, Cainiao Group's revenue for this quarter was 28.476 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24%; Realized an adjusted EBITA of 961 million RMB, enhancing profitability.
This quarter, Cainiao's "Global 5-Day Delivery" international express delivery capacity covered two to 10 new countries, with orders achieving a three digit month on month growth. While enhancing end-to-end cross-border logistics capabilities, Cainiao is also accelerating the construction of local self built logistics overseas. This quarter, Cainiao upgraded its logistics solutions in key countries and markets such as North America and Latin America. For example, in North America, Cainiao Shipping has officially entered the US market, which can achieve the fastest 5-day air freight delivery and the fastest 15 day sea freight delivery, and supports one click consolidation of packages across the entire network.