Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is discussing injecting a health foods and supplements business into its publicly traded health arm after the two companies dropped plans to exchange an online pharmacy operation in a $2.5 billion deal. Alibaba Group is considering injecting "a substantial segment" of the health foods, dietary supplement and nutritional products business operated by its Tmall online shopping platform into its Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd. subsidiary, according to a stock exchange statement today. Ali Health has dropped a HK$19.4 billion ($2.5 billion) deal announced last year to acquire from another Alibaba unit a sales platform for online pharmacies, due to "ongoing regulatory uncertainties", according to the statement. Instead, it entered into a new agreement to operate the platform of Tmall for a service fee amounting to 21.5% of payments made by online pharmacies. Tmall typically takes a cut of all transactions handled through its website.
