Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma and other investors will pump up to 10 billion yuan ($1.61 billion) into Chinese drugmaker Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Co Ltd to help fuel its online expansion. Yunfeng Capital, an investment vehicle co-founded by Ma, will invest 500 million yuan via a private placement, Baiyunshan said in a statement late on Monday. China Life Insurance Co Ltd will invest around 2.5 billion yuan.Baiyunshan said the online drug market was worth 4.3 billion yuan in 2013, but only accounted for a fraction of the wider medicine market. "It's a long way below the U.S. level of around 30 percent. So there's plenty of room to grow," Baiyunshan said.Baiyunshan's shares rose 10 percent in Shanghai on Tuesday, the maximum permitted amount, and around 19 percent in Hong Kong.Reuters reported last week that China will allow online sales of prescription drugs as early as this month, a policy that will open up the country's huge drug market to online pharmacy operators and retail chains.
China Life Insurance Company Limited is a China-based life insurance company. Shares of LFC fell by 0.39% or $-0.23/share to $58.21. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $38.30 and as high as $60.34. On average, 210829 shares of LFC exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 298845.
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