China’s market regulator is investigating Alibaba-Minmetals

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s market watchdog is investigating a joint venture between e-commerce giant Alibaba Group and Minmetals Development, Minmetals said on Monday, amid sweeping antitrust clampdown on internet companies.

Minmetals said in a statement that it had recently received a notice from the State Administration for Market Regulation about an investigation into a joint venture established in 2015 in which Alibaba transferred its 44% stake to an unrelated company in 2019.

Alibaba declined to comment.

The investigation follows a record $2.75 billion antitrust fine levied against Alibaba earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Minmetals said in a statement that under the “preliminary agreement,” the company’s e-commerce cooperation “did not involve a violation of antitrust law and did not cause harm to the interests of customers, consumers or investments.”

The company added that it does not expect the regulator’s investigation to have a material adverse effect on its business operations.

(Reporting by Sophie Yu, Tony Munroe and Josh Horwitz; Editing by Louise Heavens and Michael Perry)