Giant Alibaba pours money into Hasaki store chain
E-commerce giant Alibaba has acquired a minority stake in the Hasaki health and beauty care store chain. This deal was carried out through subsidiary Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC), according to sources from DealStreetAsia.
Currently, the Hasaki store chain has backing from private equity (PE) company Excelsior Capital Asia – a company headquartered in Hong Kong.
“We welcome Alibaba International to participate as a financial investor. Despite challenging macro conditions, this deal is a testament to Hasaki’s capabilities and business model,” Mr. Hiep Dinh, founder and CEO of Hasaki, said in a statement shared with DealStreetAsia.
Koru Capital – company headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City – acts as financial advisor to Hasaki.
Launched in 2016, Hasaki cosmetics and health care store chain currently operates more than 140 stores and clinics across Vietnam. Besides the store network, Hasaki also has an online retail platform, including a website, mobile application and an e-commerce website store.
As of November 2023, Hasaki’s user base has expanded to 3.8 million members, with nearly 750,000 shoppers each month. Hasaki aims to capture at least 35% market share in Vietnam by 2027. Sector
The beauty and health care sector is one of the fastest growing consumer sectors in Vietnam, with a total market size of up to 2.2 million. billion USD and has an annual growth rate of about 7%, Hasaki said in a statement.
The sector is in a transitional phase, with institutional retailers replacing traditional individual retailers and small-format stores.
Competition is fierce
Currently, Hasaki is also competing with many other chains. For example, the Beauty Box store chain, with the support of Mekong Capital fund. This investment fund poured money into the Beauty Box chain in 2021.
Meanwhile, Indonesian e-commerce company Social Bella, a beauty and health care product company, also entered Vietnam a year ago. This company has the backing of L Catterton.
Regarding AIDC, this is a company established during the process of reforming Alibaba Group’s operations in March 2023. During this process, Alibaba split into six businesses.
Among them, AIDC operates the Alibaba.com website, as well as overseas retail segments, including Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol and Daraz.
In the third quarter of 2023, AIDC recorded revenue of 3.36 billion USDgrowing 53% over the same period, Alibaba said in its latest financial report.
“We believe that international markets have huge growth potential over the next few years. We will selectively increase investments in high-potential regional markets and take advantage of certain high-growth opportunities,” Alibaba said.
In Vietnam, Alibaba also invested in The CrownX, Masan Group’s integrated retail platform. In 2021, Alibaba and BPEA EQT lead a group of investors to acquire 5.5% shares of The CrownX for 400 million dollars.
Vu Hao (According to Nikkei Asia)
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