HONG KONG-In a major push into the logistics business, Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said Monday it would invest around $360 million in Haier Group, one of China’s biggest manufacturers and distributors of household appliances.
The deal calls for the two companies to set up a joint-venture logistics business, bringing together Alibaba’s huge online retailing platform and client network with Haier’s logistics unit, Goodaymart, which has an especially strong presence in China’s smaller inland cities and provinces.
Shares in Haier’s Hong Kong-listed unit, Haier Electronics Group, rose as much as 20 percent in early trading on Monday on news of the deal.
‘‘Alibaba Group is honored to join with Haier Group to create this platform that will equip China’s manufacturing industry with enhanced nationwide and global access,’’ Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder and executive chairman, said in a statement.
Companies around the world are responding to the rapid growth of Internet retail by seeking ways to deliver goods more quickly to buyers.
Last week, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, proposed using drones to deliver packages to customers in the United States.
Other companies, including United Parcel Service and Google are considering using drones for delivery, too, but are also working on ways to provide so called on-demand delivery.
For Alibaba, which is considering an initial public offering in New York that analysts say could make it one of the world’s most valuable Internet companies, one of the strongest selling points to the tie-up with Haier is a stronger distribution network for the goods that are sold on Tmall.com, its popular business- to-consumer platform.
Alibaba says more than 70,000 international and Chinese brands have already set up digital storefronts on Tmall.com, where transaction volumes in 2012 surpassed 200 billion renminbi, or about $33 billion, and hit a single day global record of 35 billion renminbi on Nov. 11 of this year â€" a day celebrated in China as ‘‘Singles’ Day,’’ which is now a nationwide shopping event.
The deal gives Tmall.com access to Goodaymart’s extensive network in China, which includes nine shipping bases and more than 21 million square feet of warehouse space.
Haier says Goodaymart runs logistics and distribution sites in more than 2,800 counties across China and operates more than 17,000 service points.
Haier, which in September sold a 10 percent stake in itself to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, a private equity group, is best known for selling white goods, like a washing machine that also washes potatoes.
But it is Haier’s logistics and distribution business, which handles both its own products and those of competitors, that today accounts for most of its sales.
This business line, which Haier Electronics refers to as integrated channel services, reported revenue of 26.6 billion renminbi in the first six months of this year, up 11 percent from a year earlier.
Alibaba’s total investment in Haier is worth 2.82 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $364 million, and consists of several transactions. The Internet company will pay 965 million dollars for new shares, representing a 2 percent stake in Haier Electronics.
Alibaba will also pay 541 million dollars for a 9.9 percent stake in Goodaymart, and 1.32 billion dollars for convertible bonds issued by Goodaymart that will lift its total stake in the logistics business to 24.1 percent once the notes are converted into shares.
