Alibaba placing Freshippo grocery unit listing on backburner - Bloomberg News

Investing.com -- Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) has decided to place the possible listing of its Freshippo grocery chain on hold due to weak sentiment around consumer stocks, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Citing people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg said that the tech giant spoke with potential investors and concluded that Freshippo would garner a valuation of roughly $4 billion in the listing. The people told Bloomberg that this level was below Alibaba's target of $6B to $10B.

Representatives from Alibaba and Freshippo declined to comment to Bloomberg.

Alibaba's U.S. depositary shares dropped in early trading, touching their lowest intraday mark in two weeks.

Freshippo, a supermarket group that offers services like dine-in restaurants and at-home delivery, was reportedly slated to be among the first of Alibaba's divisions to float on public markets following the e-commerce company's decision earlier this year to break itself up into six pieces. Alibaba is aiming to carry out the flotation by May 2024.

An improvement in China's retail sector and wider economy may lead Freshippo to move forward again with its listing plans and the business is ready to submit its preliminary prospectus at any time, people quoted by Bloomberg said.