--- title: "Sun Art Retail's Parent Company Announces Latest Progress on Acquisition After Shares Surge 15% on First Day of Resumption" description: "Sun Art Retail, parent company of RT-Mart, resumed trading after a near 20-day suspension, with shares jumping 15.08% on the first day. The company disclosed that it received a contact letter from a potential offeror on September 27, indicating a possible conditional voluntary offer for all issued shares. Alibaba Group, its controlling shareholder, is in talks to sell its stake in Sun Art." author: "New Distribution" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2024-10-17" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/sun-art-retail-s-parent-company-announces-latest-progress-on-acquisition-cdb64047/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/sun-art-retail-s-parent-company-announces-latest-progress-on-acquisition-cdb64047.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bMyQhywBvJHTfPXgElXRGw" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%A4%8D%E7%89%8C%E9%A6%96%E6%97%A5%E5%A4%A7%E6%B6%A815-%E5%A4%A7%E6%B6%A6%E5%8F%91%E6%AF%8D%E5%85%AC%E5%8F%B8%E5%85%AC%E5%91%8A%E6%8A%AB%E9%9C%B2%E6%94%B6%E8%B4%AD%E4%BA%8B%E5%AE%9C%E6%9C%80%E6%96%B0%E8%BF%9B%E5%B1%95-cdb64047.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/sun-art-retail-s-parent-company-announces-latest-progress-on-acquisition-cdb64047/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Sun Art Retail's Parent Company Announces Latest Progress on Acquisition After Shares Surge 15% on First Day of Resumption > Sun Art Retail, parent company of RT-Mart, resumed trading after a near 20-day suspension, with shares jumping 15.08% on the first day. The company disclosed that it received a contact letter from a potential offeror on September 27, indicating a possible conditional voluntary offer for all issued shares. Alibaba Group, its controlling shareholder, is in talks to sell its stake in Sun Art. Recently, Sun Art Retail, the parent company of RT-Mart, announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it would suspend trading from September 27, citing "pending the release of an announcement containing inside information of the company pursuant to the Hong Kong Code on Takeovers and Mergers." After nearly 20 days of suspension, Sun Art Retail officially resumed trading. On the first day of resumption, Sun Art Retail's share price rose by 15.08%. According to an announcement released by the company on the evening of October 15, on September 27, the company's board received a contact letter from a potential offeror, indicating an intention to make a conditional voluntary offer for all issued shares of the company, subject to various matters, and to propose a share option offer to cancel all outstanding share options issued by the company. Currently, its controlling shareholder, Alibaba Group, is in negotiations to sell its shares in Sun Art Retail. Over the past year, rumors about the potential sale of RT-Mart have been persistent. After multiple denials and clarifications, this announcement indicates that the news is about to become a reality. There is much speculation in the market about the identity of potential acquirers, including COFCO Group, Hillhouse Capital, Ruentex Group, and KKR Group, all considered possible buyers. Additionally, some rumors suggest that China Resources Vanguard and Trust-Mart could also be potential acquirers. **Selling Sun Art Retail Shares** **Alibaba Unwilling to Continue "Running Alongside"** * In August 1996, Ruentex Group established "RT-Mart International Co., Ltd." * In 1998, RT-Mart opened its first store in mainland China in Shanghai, and achieved significant growth in subsequent years. * In 1999, RT-Mart's revenue reached 24 billion yuan. * In 2001, Ruentex Group formed a joint venture with French retailer Auchan Group, introducing an internationalized operational management model for RT-Mart. * In 2011, Sun Art Retail was established, owning both the "RT-Mart" and "Auchan" brands, and was listed in Hong Kong. * In November 2017, Alibaba Group, Auchan Retail, and Ruentex Group announced a new retail strategic cooperation, with Alibaba Group becoming a significant shareholder of Sun Art Retail. * In 2020, Alibaba Group further increased its stake in Sun Art Retail to 72%, promoting RT-Mart's development in the new retail sector. During this period, Alibaba provided strong logistics support to RT-Mart, solving delivery service issues, and brought substantial online traffic to RT-Mart through platforms such as Taoxianda, Ele.me, and Tmall Supermarket. Additionally, Sun Art Retail actively deployed various new models, including RT-Mart Super, Little RT-Mart, and M Member Store, attempting to attract different consumer groups through diversification and market segmentation. However, despite RT-Mart being one of the earliest traditional retailers to undergo digital transformation, **from Sun Art Retail's operating conditions in recent years, its performance has not achieved the expected growth targets.** Before 2020, Sun Art Retail's total sales revenue hovered between 90 billion and 100 billion yuan, with net profit consistently around 2.8 billion yuan. In the super-long financial report covering January 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, operating revenue soared to 124.3 billion yuan, and net profit reached a high of 3.572 billion yuan, but this was the company's **last time achieving revenue of over 100 billion yuan.** In fiscal year 2022, Sun Art Retail suffered its **first loss since its listing in 2011**, with net profit turning from profit to loss of -826 million yuan. Although it turned profitable in fiscal year 2023, the profit was only 109 million yuan. In May this year, Sun Art Retail released its annual performance report for fiscal year 2024 (April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024). The data showed that during the reporting period, the company's revenue was 72.567 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.3%; net loss was 1.668 billion yuan, a decrease of 2238.5% compared to the same period last year, **becoming the largest loss since Sun Art Retail's listing in 2011**. Additionally, it closed 20 hypermarkets, and over 20,000 employees left the company. **Sun Art Retail's market value has shrunk from a peak of over 100 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2000 to only about 17 billion Hong Kong dollars now, a decrease of over 80%.** According to the latest profit warning, Sun Art Retail expects that for the six months ending September 30, 2024, its after-tax profit will significantly improve and turn from loss to profit compared to the same period last fiscal year, with a profit range of 150 million to 200 million yuan, a significant improvement compared to the loss of 378 million yuan in the same period last year, showing initial signs of improvement. However, given its past performance, **Alibaba seems unwilling to continue bearing the cost of trial and error, which may be one of the reasons Alibaba is considering selling RT-Mart.** Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu once stated that the company will have three important priority directions: technology-driven internet platform business, AI-driven technology business, and globalized commercial network, and will "invest more decisively and make more decisive trade-offs." Although new retail was once an important strategic direction for Alibaba, with changes in the market environment and the company's strategic refocusing, **Alibaba has begun to reassess the value of its new retail assets.** **Where Is the Way Forward?** With the continuous rise in offline rent and labor costs, coupled with the strong rise of online e-commerce platforms, traditional supermarket chains face unprecedented challenges. At the same time, the emergence of new business formats such as convenience stores, community fresh food stores, community group buying, and membership stores has further intensified market diversion. Those who do not advance will retreat, and the supermarket industry seems to be gradually declining. In this context, how to find their own positioning has become a problem that every hypermarket must face. Returning to RT-Mart itself, according to public information, in addition to exploring multiple business formats, RT-Mart has also launched the "Dazhizhi Chaosheng" series, starting with product adjustments, covering categories such as personal care, clothing, food, and home goods. Its core competitiveness lies in direct sourcing from source factories and optimizing the supply chain. This series includes private label and self-developed products, which are significantly different from common products on shelves, and it is said to have received positive feedback in markets across the north and south. In the first half of this year, in the fiscal year 2024 report released by Sun Art Retail, CEO Shen Hui stated: "**The group is acting quickly to return to the essence of retail, to return to the original intention and foundation of RT-Mart, to reshape price perception, strengthen fortress products, and sell more and more quality products to more and more customers at lower and lower prices. Pursue maximum receivables and minimum expenses.** " The big ship of Sun Art Retail will eventually leave Alibaba. Although where it will ultimately sail remains uncertain, one thing is clear: without breaking, there is no establishing. Returning to the essence of retail, using scale advantages, efficiency advantages, and cost advantages as the compass, and daring to break old models, is the only way to achieve true revival. Otherwise, no matter who takes the helm, success will be difficult. --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671