Suning.com Co. Ltd. has divested $1.5 billion worth of shares in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese home electronics retailer disclosed in a May 30 filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
The sale conducted through the New York Stock Exchange involves 7,660,000 shares, which account for 0.3% of Alibaba's total shares.
Suning.com expects to make a net profit of about 5.61 billion yuan from the deal, after which it will have 13,164,689 shares equivalent to a 0.51% stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant.
Suning.com plans to put those proceeds toward expanding sales channels and diversifying product offerings, as well as research and development.
It said in a statement that Alibaba, which holds a 19.99% stake in Suning.com, was its "most important strategic partner."
Suning.com plans to continue deepening the cooperation between the two companies through initiatives such as joint purchasing, operating a flagship store on Alibaba's Tmall platform, logistics and online-to-offline integration.
As of May 30, US$1 was equivalent to 6.42 Chinese yuan.
