Suning completes purchase of 80% stake in Carrefour China

NANJING - Chinese retail giant Suning.com has taken an 80-percent stake in Carrefour China after a wholly-owned subsidiary completed the equity transfer.

The deal was closed Thursday after Suning International Group Co Ltd completed the acquisition payment.

The Chinese retailer on Friday said it was cleared from an antitrust probe by the State Administration for Market Regulation in August.

Suning announced in June that Suning International would buy the controlling stake in Carrefour China owned by Carrefour Nederland BV for 4.8 billion yuan ($673 million) in cash.

French retail giant Carrefour Group then said it would retain a 20 percent stake in Carrefour China after the closing of the transaction.

The stake purchase is a key step in Suning's smart retail strategy, according to Zhang Jindong, chairman of Suning Holdings Group, parent of Suning.com.

Suning can digitize Carrefour's outlet stores to create a shopping experience integrating the online and offline retail businesses to better meet the rising consumer demand, said Zhang.

In mid-September, Suning announced that it planned to open over 200 home appliance stores at Carrefour's outlets across the country on Sept 28.

Carrefour runs a network of 210 hypermarkets and 24 convenience stores in 51 Chinese cities.

The Nanjing-headquartered Suning owns one of China's leading e-commerce platforms with more than 400 million users and had 8,881 stores in China by the end of last year.