Alibaba Group Holding, a leading ecommerce portal from China, has said that it is planning to acquire a stake in a Chinese department store operator, Intime Retail (Group) Co Ltd in a deal valued at $692 million.

Alibaba is aiming to expand its position in the retail market in order to offer benefits and convenience of online shopping to its customers. The company said that it will acquire $214 million worth of shares in Hong Kong-listed Company. The company has also agreed to acquire $478 million of convertible bonds in the firm, allowing it to have a stake of 26.1 percent in the department store operator after the bonds are converted into shares after three years.

Alibaba had spent more than $2.7 billion to expand into media, chat services and mapping technology. The company is aiming to compete better with the likes of Tencent Holdings Ltd, which is expanding its presence in various markets.

Alibaba Group has said that it is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) at a U. S. stock exchange instead of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Alibaba Group is aiming to raise up to $15 billion in the biggest initial public offering since Facebook. The company announced its decision to get listed in the US, following uncertainty over an initial public offering in Hong Kong.