Alibaba aims to develop offline business

Hong Kong-listed Intime Retail to form joint venture with mainland Internet giant

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will form a joint venture with a Chinese department store operator in its latest push to develop its online-to-offline business.

According to a joint statement by the two firms on Monday, the Internet titan, with interests that span from online retail and wholesale to payment and digital mapping, is to make a strategic investment in the Hong Kong-listed Intime Retail (Group) Co Ltd, a company that owns department stores and commercial real estate assets in the Chinese mainland.