Suning Sports, the sports broadcasting offshoot of China-based retailand commerce conglomerate Suning, has closed a $600m series A round co-led by e-commerce firm Alibaba, Lanxiong has reported.
Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs co-led the round, which included artificial intelligence technology provider SenseTime, property developer Evergrande Group and subsidiaries of banks CCB International, Minsheng Bank and ABC International.
Sports Industrial Fund of Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province also participated in the round, as did private equity firm Yunfeng Capital. It reportedly valued Suning Sports at $2.6bn.
Suning Sports owns the broadcasting rights to several large sporting competitions, particularly in football where it holds the rights for China’s domestic league, England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and Germany’s Bundesliga, as well as the Asian Champions League.
The company also owns a majority stake in Italian football team Internazionale through a holding subsidiary as well as stakes in Chinese teams, but told Reuters that its club ownership assets were not included as part of the entity that raised the series A funding.
Alibaba made its investment alongside an agreement between its online video streaming subsidiary, Youku Tudou, and Suning Sports that will involve the companies teaming up to jointly run an online sports channel that will be known as Youku Sports.