Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc said on Friday it would sell an 8.32% stake to postal and banking giant Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd, deepening a logistics tie-up in the face of competition from rivals such as Amazon.com Inc.
Friday’s deal makes Japan Post Holdings the biggest shareholder in Rakuten outside the founding Mikitani family, and is part of a 242-billion-yen ($2.2-billion) share sale to companies including Tencent and Walmart.
Image Frame Investment, a unit of Chinese tech giant Tencent, will take 3.65% in Rakuten through third-party allotment, with Walmart also to buy shares.
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