Alibaba’s Cainiao, one of founder Jack Ma’s grand projects, to heat up China’s logistics industry after US$1 billion IPO in Hong Kong, analysts say

Cainiao is expected to ‘bring fierce competition and further standardisation to the entire express delivery industry’, IPG China’s Bai Wenxi said

A decade after its creation, Cainiao has started to offer half-day express delivery in China and five-day global delivery in selected overseas markets

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Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma led the establishment of logistics enterprise Cainiao in 2013 to strengthen the foundation of his e-commerce empire. Photos: Shutterstock

Published: 9:30pm, 27 Sep 2023Updated: 2:05pm, 28 Sep 2023

About a decade after Jack Ma pushed forward the establishment of logistics enterprise Cainiao, a big opportunity looms for global investors to own a stake in one of the Alibaba Group Holding founder’s grand projects.

Cainiao Smart Logistics Network is the first of the e-commerce giant’s six spin-off companies to test the appetite for new listings in Hong Kong, where it has applied to raise at least US$1 billion in what is widely expected to be the world’s second-largest initial public offering (IPO) this year.

South China Morning Post owner Alibaba’s plan to independently list its logistics enterprise “will strengthen Cainiao’s management, improve Alibaba’s financial transparency and capital strength, and bring fierce competition and further standardisation to the entire express delivery industry”, said Bai Wenxi, chief economist at IPG China.

Although the word cainiao is slang for rookie in Mandarin, Ma showed he was no newbie in leading the creation of the logistics unit in 2013 – months after stepping down as Alibaba’s chief executive – to strengthen the foundation of his e-commerce empire.

Autonomous delivery vehicles for Cainiao are seen near Alibaba Group Holding’s headquarters in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, on August 2, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

“For e-commerce firms, the three most important infrastructure items are information flow, cash flow and delivery,” Ma said at the time.