Asia news roundup: Alibaba and Ant Financial in back-to-back deals

Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma / Photo credit: Alibaba

Big moves by Alibaba dominated today’s headlines.

Fintech

Alibaba to buy a third of Ant Financial (China). Jack Ma’s company has agreed to snap up 33 percent of Alipay’s owner in exchange for certain intellectual property rights. No cash is changing hands, but Ant will end royalty payments to Alibaba that amounted to over US$300 million last fiscal year. Analysts said the transaction could be in preparation for a potential IPO. It comes after Ant’s US expansion was thwarted by the collapse of the MoneyGram deal. (Bloomberg)

Ecommerce and delivery

Alibaba plows $146m into online grocer BigBasket (India). The investment strengthens Alibaba’s position in India’s online retail space and poses a challenge to rivals Amazon and SoftBank-backed Grofers. India’s retail market is worth over US$900 billion and grocery shopping accounts for US$600 billion of that, claims the BigBasket’s co-founder, Hari Menon. (Reuters)

Ant Financial now backs Zomato (India). Ant Financial itself is in investment mode, injecting US$200 million into the restaurant discovery and food delivery firm. The transaction values Zomato at about US$1.1 billion, according to reports. The deal could see the company working more closely with payments firm Paytm, which counts Ant as one of its largest investors. Zomato competes with Bangalore-based Swiggy, also heavily financed by investors like Naspers. (Livemint)

Cryptocurrency

Coincheck had system flaws before $530m cybertheft (Japan). Japan’s Financial Services Agency said it had asked the cryptocurrency exchange to fix flaws in its computer networks well before hackers stole US$530 million of digital money last week. Coincheck was ordered to submit a report on the hack and measures for preventing a recurrence by February 13. The regulator plans to investigate all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country for security gaps. (Reuters)

Social media

Facebook’s growth showing signs of slowing (Asia). Facebook recorded nearly 500 million daily devotees in Asia last year, up from 396 million in 2016. However, growth has slowed significantly to 4.8 percent versus 7.6 percent in 2016. The social media giant also lost daily visitors for the first time in the US and Canada. (Tech in Asia)

Mobile

Kakao Corp. GDR lists on SGX (Korea, Singapore). The South Korean mobile lifestyle software company and operator of the country’s most popular messaging app, Kakao Talk, has raised funding through a GDR (Global Depository Receipt) listing on the Singapore Exchange. The financial instrument allows the company to attract more interest from foreign investors. Chew Sutat, head of equities and fixed income at SGX, said this is the bourse’s sixth GDR listing by Korean-listed companies, which have raised a total of US$2.9 billion in funding. (SGX)

See: Previous Asia news roundups