Chinese internet giant Tencent is planning to invest about $500 million in Hillhouse Capital Group’s Chinese drugstore business, in a deal that values the unit at around $2.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.
The potential investment would be another sign of how Tencent, which operates the ubiquitous WeChat social messaging app, is pushing into healthcare as it moves beyond its core businesses of online games. Tencent already has backed a number of healthcare startups including Tencent Trusted Doctors, a private healthcare network, and WeDoctor, which offers remote consultations, health insurance and medical data processing. Tencent also has been developing services around artificial-intelligence-powered medical imaging.