Port Adelaide will announce a joint venture e-commerce deal with Gui Guojie's Shanghai CRED.GETTY IMAGES
Australian Football League side Port Adelaide "hopes to score goals where many other Australian companies have failed," according to Michael Smith of the AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW. The club "teamed up" with Chinese property tycoon and major sponsor Gui Guojie to launch an e-commerce business for Australian companies "hoping to break into China." Port Adelaide, which claims to be "the first Australian sporting body to set up a registered company in China," will announce a joint venture e-commerce deal with Gui's Shanghai CRED on Friday. The platform, named CRED e-SHOP, is designed to give small- and medium-sized Australian exporters access to China. While Port Adelaide is not the first Australian organization looking to profit from China's "booming consumer market," a sporting body "seeking to tap into Australia's booming consumer market is less common." Port Adelaide, which "turned to China for sponsorship dollars three years after struggling to compete" with its high-profile Victorian rivals, will get a percentage of any transactions on the new platform -- "effectively acting as a middle man for any deals." It also plans to develop "other new sporting businesses in China" (AFR, 5/18).
