Tencent to buy stake in Chinese supermarket chain

Tencent Holdings will buy a stake in Chinese supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores for about 4.22 billion yuan ($638 million), setting up a clash with arch-rival Alibaba Group Holding in physical retail.

China’s largest internet corporation is acquiring about 5 per cent of Yonghui from existing shareholders at 8.81 yuan apiece, Yonghui said in an exchange filing Friday, a 9.9 per cent discount to its price before trading was halted on December 8. The investment  — a rare foray into traditional retail for a company known for games and messaging service WeChat — may be looking to drive adoption of its digital