In an interesting online sale, two Boeing 747 aircraft have been sold on the Chinese Alibaba-owned e-commerce website Taobao for $49 million (322m yuan, £37 million). The aircraft, which were sold on Tuesday, recorded the highest-value sale ever for Taobao.
This is for the first time such jets were sold via auction in China. A defunct cargo company had put the jets for sale on the e-commerce website. The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court handling the bankruptcy had been trying to sell the jets for years, BBC reported.
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Initially, the jets were offered for sale offline, but after six offline auctions failed, the company decided to sell it online. The highest bidder and China's largest private courier, SF Airlines, purchased the jets. Around 25 other parties had shown interest in buying the aircraft.
The bid on one of the planes was 133.8 million yuan, while the bid on the second plane was 135 million yuan. They were eventually sold at 160.8 million yuan and 162 million yuan, respectively.
The aircraft had been kept in Shanghai after the owner Jade Cargo International filed for bankruptcy in 2013. In total, three Boeing 747-400s had been put up for sale from Monday to Tuesday, but only two had been purchased. One aircraft is still parked at the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport.
SF Airlines, China's largest logistics service providers controlled by billionaire Wang Wei, will have to complete the purchase by making the full payment within 15 working days. The largest private courier company had previously said that they are ready to shell out 2.7 billion yuan to buy aircraft and hire pilots.
Meanwhile, the $49 million sale might be the highest for Taobao, but has not shattered the record of eBay's highest sale. In 2006, eBay recorded the highest ever sale. A super yacht had fetch $85 million on eBay.
