Alibaba Group brings its current cross-border trade operations to the new venture whilst the bank is providing the financial investment

Sberbank and China’s Alibaba Group have decided to set up a joint online retail enterprise in the first half of 2017, writes Russian newspaper Kommersant.

The joint venture could be set up exclusively as a Russian corporation in which Sberbank would have at least a 50% stake, a source close to the government told the publication. According to the source, the joint venture would in this case be prohibited from providing financial services, which would be furnished by Sberbank.

The two sides hope to set up the venture in the first half of 2017, however these dates might be pushed back due to complex negotiations, the newspaper reveals.

Sberbank is expected to contribute the necessary funds for the new company, as well as providing marketing and logistics technology. Alibaba Group has its current cross-border trade operations in Russia and the CIS to bring to the table. It may also tap into its network in Turkey and various Eastern European countries. “We are looking to create a company worth several billion dollars that will become a major player on the cross-border e-commerce market, in Russia and in several other countries”, the newspaper’s source emphasized.

In November 2016, it came to light that Sberbank was working on a start-up project based on an open source ‘national ecosystem’, following the example of leading global e-commerce companies such as Google, Amazon, or China’s Alibaba Group. Sberbank intends ‘ecosystem’ to mean a network of organizations built around a single technological platform which is used to provide access to customers and offer products to them.