$SUNART RETAIL (06808.HK)$ Opened nearly 15% lower, continued to decline in the early trading, as of this writing, down 28.23%, at HKD 1.78, with a trading volume of nearly HKD 44 million.

On the evening of January 1, SUNART RETAIL announced that the offeror Paragon Shine Limited intends to acquire over 7.5077 billion shares of SUNART RETAIL held by Alibaba, New Retail, Taobao China, and Jixin Holdings (the seller), accounting for approximately 78.7% of the issued shares, at a total price of 10.3606 billion Hong Kong dollars. The offeror will make a cash offer for all issued shares, with an offer price of 1.38 Hong Kong dollars per share, and proposes a stock option offer. Among them, Alibaba plans to sell approximately 73.66% of its shares in SUNART RETAIL, with the maximum transaction price according to the agreement being approximately 13.138 billion Hong Kong dollars, equivalent to 1.75 Hong Kong dollars per share.

The offeror indirectly holds 100% interest through the DCP Capital affiliated fund DCP Capital Partners II, L.P. Alibaba's subsidiaries and New Retail have ceased further discussions with another potential offeror regarding any potential offers made by that party for the company. SUNART RETAIL's performance for the first half of the fiscal year 2025 (as of September 30, 2024) reported revenue of 34.708 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.96%; and realized a net income of 0.206 billion yuan, compared to a loss of 0.359 billion yuan in the same period last year, achieving profitability.

Editor/lambor