Beijing Hualian Department Store Co. Ltd. said Feb. 27 that it did not sign any agreement with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. regarding the sale of its stake in Rajax Holding HK Ltd., which owns food delivery startup Ele.me in China.

However, Beijing Hualian also noted in the statement that Alibaba recently contacted all the owners of Rajax, expressing its intention to buy. The Chinese retailer added that key issues such as price, timing, volume and the method of any equity transfer were still under discussion.

It was reported Feb. 26 that Alibaba was buying stakes of Baidu Inc. and other Ele.me investors in order to gain the biggest share of China's online food delivery market.