Shares of China's navigation service companies surged yesterday after a media report said China North Industries Group Corp has agreed with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to form a joint venture to operate commercial satellite services.
Dazhihui News said Alibaba has set up a joint venture with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan (US$161 million) to operate China's satellite navigation system commercially. The report cited an unidentified source close to the deal as saying that Alibaba may invest tens of billions of yuan in the sector in the next few years to drive collaboration between navigation service providers with industry sectors.
North Navigation Control Technology surged by the daily limit of 10 percent to 13.79 yuan, as did Aerospace Hi-Tech Holding Group to 23.20 yuan. China Spacesat Co Ltd jumped 3.81 percent to 18.81 yuan.
Alibaba declined to comment on the report yesterday.