After protracted negotiations, Yahoo, China's Alibaba Group and Japan's Softbank Corp are making some headway towards an agreement over the ownership of the Chinese company's Alipay e-payment service.

The three companies are currently locked in a battle over the transfer of Alipay to a company wholly-owned by Alibaba founder, Jack Ma. Alibaba is currently 40 percent owned by Yahoo and around 30 percent owned by Softbank.

But it says the transfer of the Alipay unit is necessary under new Chinese regulations, which restrict foreign ownership in e-payment companies. The parties say they're making substantive and encouraging progress towards a deal, and their objective is to reach an agreement in a timely manner, that serves the interests of all stakeholders.

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