Ma's SCMP deal beats Washington Post buy

Hong Kong

JACK Ma's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd looks to be getting a better deal in its US$266 million acquisition of the South China Morning Post (SCMP) and related assets, compared with recent newspaper deals including the purchase by Amazon.com Inc's Jeff Bezos of The Washington Post.

At HK$2.06 billion (S$375.3 million), the Chinese e-commerce giant is buying SCMP's media assets at 10 times the latest annual adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda). By comparison, the US$250 million that Mr Bezos paid for The Washington Post in 2013 was 17 times Ebitda.