The deal is likely to be completed in the first half of 2026.
JD.com is acquiring Germany's Ceconomy in a deal that values the electronics retailer at 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion), allowing one of China's largest online retailers to expand outside of its home market.
Ceconomy's MediaMarkt and Saturn brands will give JD.com, which competes with Alibaba
and Amazon, access to one of the largest online shops for electronic goods in Europe and a network of about 1,000 stores in several European countries.
The deal, announced on Wednesday, values Ceconomy at 4.60 euros a share and CEO Kai-Ulrich Deissner told Reuters it would likely be completed in the first half of next year.
Ceconomy had annual sales of 22.4 billion euros in its 2023/24 financial year, of which 5.1 billion euros were online.
JD.com has accelerated its global push in recent years. In 2022 it rolled out the omnichannel retail brand Ochama in the Netherlands, and in April it began a pilot run of its UK online marketplace Joybuy.
JD.com had looked at an acquisition of British electronics retailer Currys.
Europe is emerging as a hotspot for Chinese deals and investments and the region is expected to attract more money from China driven by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff war, said advisers.
Deals into Europe more than doubled to $8.45 billion in 2024, the highest since 2021, and made up more than a third of all China outbound M&A, according to LSEG data, despite increased scrutiny of foreign investments into the region.
Source: Reuters
