Latest rumors that Alibaba has decided to sell Freshippo and SpainRT-Mart to a state-run company were again denied by the e-commerce giant, following a weekend report that said China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO) is expected to take over the above offline market chains at RMB 20 billion ($2.8 billion) and RMB 10 billion, respectively. “The news is patently false,” Freshippo told the Chinese media outlet 21jingji, while RT-MART also denied the sale. Frequent sale rumors come after Alibaba chair Joe Tsai noted the company’s exit from traditional physical retail businesses “makes sense” due to those operations on its balance sheet not being “our core focus” during the recent earnings call in February. However, he added that the exit will “take time” given the challenging market conditions. [21jingji, in Chinese]