Alibaba injects more assets into healthcare unit: report

The group's stake in Ali Health will rise to 59.5% from 56.6% as a result.

The e-commerce group Alibaba is injecting more assets into its healthcare subsidiary, now worth a punchy US$25b. It's a timely bet that the coronavirus will accelerate reforms, like opening China's US$370b drug industry to Web retailers.

The Hong Kong-listed Alibaba Health Information Technology will issue US$1b worth of new shares to its parent in exchange for the latter's pharmaceutical business. The group's stake will rise to 59.5% from 56.6% as a result. The sale follows earlier transactions which saw the US$570b parent offload nutritional and healthcare operations to the subsidiary, as well as medical devices.

Ali Health will manage drug sales on Alibaba's shopping sites. Citi analysts estimated in early February that the new business will bring in an additional US$18m in revenue next year for the healthcare unit - less than a 1% addition to its total.

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