E-commerce giant Alibaba has bought a 10% stake in Singapore’s postal service for S$312.5 million (£148m) to create an international e-commerce logistics business.
Alibaba is one of China’s biggest e-commerce sites, and the 10.35% stake in SingPost will make it the second largest stakeholder in the postal company after Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
SingPost’s chairman Lim Ho Kee said in a statement: "We see considerable strategic advantages, such as the creation of new relationships and opportunities for strategic cooperation with the Alibaba Group."
Alibaba has recently been looking to expand its Asia-Pacific region operations, one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets.
It has been reported that e-commerce sales in the region could grow to more than $1 trillion by 2020.
CEO of SingPost Wolfgang Baier said in a joint statement with Alibaba: "E-commerce logistics is the key enabler to capture the growth in e-commerce in Asia."
"With the tremendous e-commerce opportunity, the funds from this investment provide SingPost with financial flexibility and enable us to significantly scale up our e-commerce logistics business and build new capabilities as we are poised for growth in the region."
Earlier in May, Alibaba’s IPO filing fuelled speculation that it could become the largest flotation in history, with some estimates reaching $245bn.
The Chinese e-commerce firm was founded by entrepreneur Jack Ma in 1999, linking manufacturers from Asia’s largest economy with customers overseas, and has been described as eBay, Paypal and Amazon combined.
