FTC approves Uni-President-Yahoo e-commerce joint venture deal

Taipei, July 17 (CNA) The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a strategic partnership between Taiwan-based food conglomerate Uni-President Group and Hong Kong's Yahoo! Taiwan Holdings Ltd., under which Uni-President will take an 80 percent stake in Yahoo's e-commerce business in Taiwan, the food conglomerate said in a statement Wednesday.

While Uni-President will acquire a majority stake, Yahoo will retain the other 20 percent in the US$100 million e-commerce joint venture, which will continue to use Yahoo Taiwan's e-commerce brand, according to the statement.

The deal was approved by the FTC after Uni-President announced in a statement in February that its subsidiary Cayman President Holdings Ltd. spent US$25 million to acquire Yahoo Taiwan corporate bonds.

Uni-President Group Chairman Lo Chih-hsien (羅智先) said recently that the food conglomerate generated NT$580 billion (US$17.83 billion) in sales last year, mainly from physical stores, with only 0.5 percent from online stores.

This shows there is plenty of room for growth in the e-commerce sector, Lo said, adding that the company decided to form an alliance with Yahoo to gain a better understanding of e-commerce operations.

Pete Wong (黃吉樂), general manager of Asia Yahoo, said the joint venture is aimed at market expansion by using Yahoo's experience in big data and digital operations and building on Uni-President's success at providing a comprehensive consumer experience through lifestyle essentials.