FPT Shop may sell stakes to Alibaba The representative of FPT Shop said that if FPT Shop joins hands with Alibaba, it could  strengthen its online business.   Nguyen Viet Anh, deputy CEO of FPT Shop, told Buu Dien newspaper that FPT Shop was looking for investors to expand its business. Anh said FPT Shop not only expects financial investments, but wants investors with both powerful financial capability and experiences in retail and online business who can help it develop rapidly in the next period. “Investors’ experiences will be on high priority when we consider cooperation,” Anh said, adding that of the two partners who commit the same capital contribution, FPT Shop would choose the one with better experience. FPT Shop not only expects financial investments, but wants investors with both powerful financial capability and experiences in retail and online business who can help it develop rapidly in the next period. Alibaba, for example, is a suitable partner, because it not only has good financial capability, but also experience in online business. The Chinese e-commerce and online payment group now pays high attention to developing overseas markets. It has bought stakes of an e-commerce firm in India and injected money into Lazada which has been present in many South East Asian countries, including Vietnam. FPT Shop has set about to develop anonline business facility and everything has been going as planned. Online retail will be the business sector FPT Shop will focus on in the time to come, to kick off with Samsung Galaxy On7, the first Samsung model which will be available only at FPT Shop’s online channel. In India and China, where On7 had been launched before, the product is also available on online channels. FPT Shop now owns more than 300 shops throughout 63 provinces and cities. However, Ngo Quoc Bao, a senior executive of FPT Shop, said this is still not enough and FPT needs to develop e-commerce to expand its business. Citing statistics that 49 percent of Vietnamese access to internet, 95 percent of smartphone users looks for information before shopping, Vietnam’s e-commerce may have value of $8 billion by 2018, and technology product retail ranks second in value just to fashion. Bao said now is the right time to develop online retail. As FPT Shop’s senior executives mentioned Alibaba when discussing their stake sale plan, many analysts believe that FPT Shop would sell stakes to Alibaba. However, Bao did not confirm the information. “A lot of investors have shown their interest in FPT Shop. We said we may sell stakes to Alibaba, and we did not say we will sell stakes to Alibaba,” Bao said. He went on to say that FPT Shop will make final decision on the stake sale in six months and the investors will turn up by that time. Thanh Mai, VNN