Executive Summary

• Alibaba announced that it will pay almost $1 billion to increase its stake in leading Southeast Asia e-commerce platform Lazada to 83% from 51%.
• We view the investment as an inevitable move to reinforce the group’s global expansion strategy and believe it fits well with Alibaba’s phased-in acquisition approach.
• We expect Alibaba to continue to generate synergies by integrating Lazada into its international retail commerce ecosystem and further expand its global market share.