While the name might suggest it is an all-you-can-eat self-service restaurant, Youngor Group is referred to by netizens as the “Chinese Buffett” after American tycoon Warren Buffett for the apparel company’s strong performance in extracurricular activities such as stocks, acquisitions, and property. Their most recent move was the acquisition of the Intime Department Store from e-commerce goliath Alibaba.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Alibaba was planning to sell the Intime Department Store chain, which was founded in 1998 and contains 59 department stores and shopping centres, as the e-commerce group continues to divest its “non-core” businesses. On 16 December, rumours, along with an image, purported to be a signing ceremony between Alibaba and Youngor groups for Intime. At the time, Youngor responded to the rumours with a non-committal “nothing to announce at the present moment.” However, the official announcement came the next day.
According to the official statement from Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Alibaba, which owns 99% of Intime shares, along with one minority shareholder, has agreed to sell all of their stake in the department store chain to Youngor Group. Alibaba will raise 7.4 billion RMB (1 billion USD) but will also sustain a loss of 9.3 billion RMB (1.3 billion USD). 10 years ago,Alibaba acquired Intime for nearly 20 billion RMB (2.75 billion USD).
Meanwhile, for Youngor, this is not the first time it has had discussions to take over “non-core” businesses from Alibaba, and it has worked with Intime on many occasions since it has nearly 40 stores and concessions in Intime Department Stores across the country. The 59 locations of Intime brought in 31.5 billion RMB (4.32 billion USD) in revenue in 2023, 25% of which was from online sales. With the “Chinese Buffett” and star investor Youngor trying to venture into retail, Intime is a great vehicle for its ambitions.
