How it started
History
The origins of the company can be traced back to Shui Hing, a Hong Kong retail company that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1971.
In 1998, Shui Hing was sold to fashion retailer Easyknit International Holdings and was rebranded to Easy Concepts.
In 2000, CITIC Group acquired Easy Concepts and later renamed it to CITIC 21CN.
In January 2014, Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital acquired a controlling stake in CITIC 21CN for US$170 million. It was speculated that the then-private Alibaba was using the acquisition for a reverse takeover so it could be listed in Hong Kong but according to people familiar with Alibaba, there was no intention to do so. Alibaba stated the reason for the acquisition was because CITIC 21CN's drug data platform could help it expand into the healthcare industry. CITIC 21CN was subsequently renamed to Alibaba Health.
In 2015, Alibaba agreed to transfer the operations of its online pharmacy business from Tmall to AliHealth for US$2.5 billion of newly issued shares and convertible bonds. However AliHealth let the deal lapse due to regulatory uncertainties for online drug sales. In May 2018, Alibaba announced it will sell several of the healthcare categories on Tmall to AliHealth for US$1.35 billion.
From Wikipedia’s article on Alibaba Health, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2