THE Ayala Group on Thursday said it completed the acquisition of a 49% stake in the owner and operator of online fashion platform Zalora Philippines, as it rides on the growth of the e-commerce industry in the country.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday, Ayala Corp. said its wholly owned subsidiaries AC Ventures Holding Corp., Ayala Land, Inc. through unit AMSI, Inc., BPI Capital Corp. and Kickstart Ventures, Inc. completed its purchase of shares in BF Jade E-Services, Inc.
Separately, Global Fashion Group said it transferred ownership of the 49% stake in the Zalora operator to the Ayala Group.
Ayala Corp. has directly acquired 269,864,500 shares representing a 43.28% interest in BF E-Jade, while Ayala Land said it bought 11,888,304 shares, representing a 1.91% stake in the Zalora owner. The remaining shares were purchased by BPI Capital and Kickstart Ventures.
“Through this transaction, Ayala aims to capture the growing opportunities in e-commerce amid a robust domestic consumer market and an increasingly digital environment, Moreover, with businesses in real estate, banking, and telecommunications, this investment provides opportunities for Ayala to create synergies across the e-commerce value chain,” the company said in the disclosure.
Zalora Philippines is the country’s largest online fashion marketplace where customers can choose from over 120,000 products across more than 1,000 brands. The company also has a logistics platform that allows it to deliver its customer purchases directly to their homes.
“This partnership will allow Zalora Philippines to keep investing in brand acquisition, marketing, and logistics infrastructure and will leverage Ayala’s key businesses representing some of the country’s leading companies in banking, telecommunications and retail business,” Global Fashion Group said in a separate statement.
Shares in AC climbed P20.50 or 2.28% to P920 apiece on Thursday. — ABF
