A group of three affiliates of tech giant Alibaba Group Holding have bought stakes in Shanghai-based health conglomerate Meinian Onehealth Healthcare, according to the latter’s filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday.
Alibaba China Network Technology, which is 50.66% owned by online marketplace Taobao and 35.4% held by business-to-consumer site Tmall, has agreed to buy a 5.58% stake in the company at RMB 2.5 billion (USD 355.4 million) from three of its current shareholders.
Hangzhou Xintuo Information Technology, which is 57.52% owned by Alibaba China Network Technology, will purchase a 5.24% stake in Meinian Onehealth at RMB 2.35 billion from six of the company’s current stockholders.
Shanghai Qijun Investment Center, a limited partnership fund affiliated with Yunfeng Capital, which was co-founded by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, will buy a 5.34% stake in the firm at RMB 2.4 billion from four of its current shareholders.
This will allow Alibaba China Network Technology and Hangzhou Xintou, which are in fact ‘persons acting in concert’, to become the second-largest shareholder of Meinian Onehealth Healthcare, controlling a 10.82% stake. The firm’s current chairman Yu Rong will remain the company’s controller, with a 22.9% stake.
Meinian Onehealth Healthcare also disclosed in the filing on Monday that Alibaba China Network Technology has subscribed to its RMB 2.05 billion private placement, which has been approved by the securities regulators but has not been closed yet, indicating that Alibaba will hold an even larger interest in the company beyond the announced transfer deal.
The company also indicated that these three new shareholders will support Meinian’s digitalization process and long term-development.
Meinian Healthcare, which went public in China in 2015, has more than 600 brick-and-mortar physical examination centers across China, according to its website. The company provides general medical examinations and other services such as disease screening, doctor referrals, and traditional Chinese preventive health to individuals and corporate customers.
This recent investment by the tech giant’s affiliates is also in line with Alibaba’s Double H (healthcare and happiness) strategy, which was announced by Jack Ma in 2015.
Guided by this strategy, Alibaba invested in Hong Kong-listed company 21st Century, whose major business is a medicine-tracking system, and later reshuffled it into AliHealth, by injecting some of Alibaba’s online pharmacy business.
Alibaba also increased its stakes in Alihealth earlier this year.
