Kinnevik and Rocket Internet sell stake in Lazada

Both Kinnevik and Rocket Internet have sold their final shares in Asian Lazada to Chinese Alibaba, which adds another 12.4 % of Lazada’s shares to its previous stake in the company.

Investment paid off

Kinnevik already sold shares in April 2016, but still had another 3.6 % of Lazada’s shares. Just like last time, it sold its remaining shares to Alibaba for 115 million dollars (102 million euro). The company also sold its remaining shares in Rocket Internet, which founded Lazada, earlier this month.

Rocket Internet still owned 8.8 % of shares and has now sold these for 276 million dollars (245 million euro), putting Lazada’s worth at 3.15 billion dollars (2.8 billion euro). Compared to Rocket Internet’s initial investment (at 18 million euro), this is a twenty-fold return.

New growth market

Alibaba made a deal with several other shareholders as well and will pay 1 billion dollars (900 million euro) to increase its current stake, at 51 %,  to 83 %. The fact it also paid 1 billion dollars for shares last year and will now only get a smaller set of shares, shows that Lazada has become more valuable in the meantime.

Rocket Internet founded Lazada in 2012 and generates sales in six South East Asian countries. Analysts consider this region to be the next major growth market and that is also probably why Alibaba has chosen to invest so heavily.