China Unicom to sell assets on Alibaba’s Taobao

China Unicom, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier by subscribers, teamed up with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Wednesday to sell its non-performing assets on the latter’s online auction platform.

The move makes China Unicom the first central State-owned enterprise to auction assets on internet platforms. The move is also part of the Beijing-based company’s broader push to deepen mixed-ownership reform.

According to China Unicom, 150 of its branches have all opened accounts on Taobao, an e-commerce platform of Alibaba, to sell their non-performing assets, to make better use of existing resources and boost efficiency.

Under the partnership, the two will also build an open, transparent and efficient asset trading platform for other large-scale Chinese enterprises.