BEIJING: Suning Sports, the sports unit of Chinese retailer Suning Holdings Group, announced Thursday the completion of a series A round investment led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings and Goldman Sachs.
While Suning Sports declined to comment on the quantum of money it had raised, a Chinese media report put it as $600 million at a valuation of RMB10 billion ($1.5 billion).
Other investors in the round include Chinese property developer Evergrande Group, Yunfeng Capital, Chinese AI company Sensetime, Sports Industrial Fund of Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, as well as overseas subsidiaries of Chinese banks CCB International, Minsheng Bank International and ABC International, China Money Network reports.
Suning Sports business include club operation management, sports media operation, youth training, sports copyright operation, sports commercial operation and sports real estate development. It owns three football clubs, the most famous being Italian Serie A club Inter Milan (FC Internazionale Milano), as well as two Chinese teams Jiangsu Suning Football Club and Jiangsu Suning Ladies Football Club.
Alibaba joins as a strategic investor to deepen a relationship started with an online-to-offline e-commerce platform alliance in 2015.
Alibaba’s online video platform Youku will work closely with Suning Sports’ PPTV. Suning Sports owns broadcast rights of football matches in Europe, Chinese Super League, and AFC Champions League. Youku acquired the exclusive online rights in China for the 2018 World Cup for RMB1.6 billion, according to China Money Network.
