omniture

China-based Property Developer Zall Group Becomes Controlling Shareholder of Leading Chinese Agricultural E-commerce Platform

Zall Group Invests 2.6 Billion HKD (Approx. $US 335 million) in Shenzhen SinoAgri E-Commerce in Move to Create the Largest B2B Online Platform in China
David Wei, CSO of Zall Group: We fully expect this partnership between online businesses to deliver a "1 Plus 1 Equals More Than 10" synergistic effect
Zall Group Ltd.
2016-10-31 11:54 4696

WUHAN, China, Oct. 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Zall Group chairman Yan Zhi and Shenzhen SinoAgri E-Commerce Co., Ltd. chairman David Wei signed an agreement on October 28th, whereby Zall Group purchased a 60.49% equity stake in SinoAgri E-Commerce. Becoming a controlling shareholder of China's biggest business-to-business (B2B) agricultural products trading platform means that Zall Group has joined the club of online businesses valued at one hundred billion HKD or more, with the intention of becoming the biggest B2B online platform in China. Following the purchase, rather than continuing in the role of independent board member, Mr. Wei will step in as executive board member and chief strategy officer for Zall Group, while remaining board chairman of SinoAgri E-Commerce.

Zall Group and Shenzhen SinoAgri E-Commerce Co., Ltd. sign cooperation agreement
Zall Group and Shenzhen SinoAgri E-Commerce Co., Ltd. sign cooperation agreement

Mr. Yan said at the signing that as a result of the cooperation with internet business experts Yu Gang and Mr. Wei, Zall Group is now confident that it can become the largest online trading platform worldwide and China's largest B2B online trading services provider, creating a new ecosystem for Chinese online businesses and transactions.

Mr. Wei revealed that profound changes have taken place within Zall Group and that the transition to ecommerce has already delivered remarkable results. Alibaba is the biggest B2B platform today, whose major function, however, is the provision of information rather than providing a platform for the execution of the trade itself and that is not enough for goods such as agricultural products that have a high dependence on logistics and finance. In the past 5 years, SinoAgri E-Commerce has become the go-to venue for B2B ecommerce in agricultural products. To date, in terms of online transactions, the trading of sugar is far more advanced than that of other products, with at least one third of the sugar that is consumed in China being ordered, sold and delivered via SinoAgri E-Commerce. Mr. Wei believes the cooperation between Zall Group and SinoAgri E-Commerce in terms of finance, the management team and the level of business that can be expected, will exceed the traditional "1 plus 1 equals more than 2" effect when the businesses are merged, with the likelihood of generating a "1 plus 1 equals more than 10" level of synergy.  

Shenzhen SinoAgri E-Commerce Co., Ltd. was founded in 2011 as a trading and service platform for manufacturers in the agriculture industrial chain. For a long time the firm led in the market share of sugar trading and gradually moved into the trade of other agricultural products including raw silk, fruit and kneading boards, with annual transactions now surpassing 100 billion HKD (approx. $US13 billion). As the pioneer of vertical ecommerce in China, SinoAgri E-Commerce has formed a diverse income structure including transactions, trading, finance, storage and logistics, which has been consistently profitable and is now demonstrating rapid and stable growth. In 2015, SinoAgri E-Commerce achieved 12.7 billion HKD (approx. $US1.6 billion) from its core business with more 4 million tons of spot settlements for agricultural products and 7 billion HKD (approx. $US900 million) of supply chain finance investment. Former Alibaba CEO David Wei became the chairman of the board of SinoAgri E-Commerce. 

Zall Group focuses on supply chain business and trading services for the wholesale market, providing clients with property, logistics, storage, finance, online transaction and big data services. Since earlier this year, Zall Group speeded up the pace of additions to the portfolio in the online B2B sector, with a series of moves that have drawn a lot of attention. After becoming the largest shareholder of LightinTheBox Holding Co., Ltd. and building the first combined online-to-offline domestic and foreign trading platform in China, purchasing Harvest Financial Information Services (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. to establish Prominent Investment Holding Ltd., and joining hands with Sinovation Ventures to set up Zall Innovative Intelligent Trading Industry Fund, an advanced, intelligent commercial ecosystem has begun to take shape. 

At present, transactions on the group's online wholesale platform have exceeded 37 billion HKD (approx. $US 4.8 billion), placing Zall Group among the top ecommerce companies in China. Becoming the controlling shareholder of SinoAgri E-Commerce gave Zall Group the capabilities to provide ancillary services to hundreds of billions of B2B online transactions and become one of the top 10 internet companies in China.  

Zall Group has, to date, created 9 major trading and services platforms: the comprehensive ecommerce trading platform zallgo.com forming the core, three vertical ecommerce platforms which includes SinoAgri E-Commerce, the international online trading platform LightinTheBox Holding Co., Ltd., the industrial chain logistics service provider zallsoon, storage service provider zallfuhui and financial services provider Zall Financial Information Services (Wuhan) Co., Ltd. and jia16.com. Zall Group sits at the helm as it continues to build the largest industrial online trading and services system in China. 

An industry-focused business based on B2B trading, logistics and financial services shows bigger potential than that of the consumer online market and is expected to become a major competitive market within 10 years. Led by Mr. Yan, with online business experts Messrs. Yu and Wei on the team, Zall Group has completed quite a few large acquisitions this year and does not expect its efforts at expansion to end anytime soon, reflecting the apparent dynamism of the online B2B sector and the group's foresight in being the first to make a significant move into the industry. 

The mature business model and profitability of SinoAgri E-Commerce have served as a good example for as well as encouraged the ongoing explosive increase in B2B systems in China. The synergy that is being created by combining the talented and mature team along with the rich experience in supply chain services that SinoAgri E-Commerce has brought to the table with the intelligent trading ecosystem of Zall Group places the group in an excellent position to be the firm that delivers on building the largest B2B trading services system in China.  

Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20161028/0861611292

Source: Zall Group Ltd.
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