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Eastern Europe
December 15, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
E-commerce tie-up between Sberbank and Alibaba collapses
bne IntelliNews
Russian state-owned retail bank Sberbank's planned joint venture with China’s top e-com- merce group Alibaba has collapsed after over
a year of talks, people familiar with the situation have told the Financial Times.
E-commerce is booming in Russia and the leading banks and retail companies have been striking a myriad of deals looking to claim market shares and create economies of scale.
Alibaba has taken the Russian market by storm and in the last two years almost all international online shopping by Russian consumers has switched from Europe to China, where the goods are cheaper, but delivery times and costs are the same.
Alibaba is keen to expand in Russia and the joint venture was an attempt to leverage state-run Sberbank’s client base and sell to customers through the bank’s app. Approximately half the Russian population have accounts with Sberbank.
However, the deal fell to pieces due to arguments over the details. Both companies refused to comment on the FT’s enquiries.
Russia is one of the biggest markets for AliExpress, Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce business selling from China into international markets. Cross-border retail grew 37% last year to more than RUB300bn ($5bn), about a third of the total online market.
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