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Rakuten plans to raise 242 billion yen ($2.2bn) by selling shares to investors including Tencent, Walmart and Japan Post.
Japan Post will buy a stake of 8.3 per cent through new and existing shares in Rakuten while China’s social media leader and the US retail giant will take smaller slices, a filing showed on Friday.
Shares of Rakuten and Japan Post surged as the agreement builds on an existing alliance on logistics forged by the two last year.
The Japanese e-commerce pioneer has benefited from a boom in online shopping during the pandemic, but faces stiff competition from Amazon. Last year, the company scaled back plans to offer free shipping after pushback from sellers using its platform prompted regulatory scrutiny. Rakuten is also expanding rapidly into wireless mobile, hoping to disrupt the staid industry.