JD.com’s acquisition of German retail giant Ceconomy has seen the latest progress. On September 18, Germany’s antitrust authority, the Bundeskartellamt (Bundeskartellamt), approved the deal. The Bundeskartellamt stated that the transaction does not raise any competition concerns.
JD.com first made its acquisition offer for Ceconomy at the end of July. The transaction would value Ceconomy at approximately €2.2 billion. If the deal is successful, it would set a new record for Chinese e-commerce expansion into Europe.
JD.com also pledged that after the transaction, Ceconomy will maintain its independent operations, with no changes to its organizational structure or office location, and the core team will remain stable. The goal is to accelerate its transformation into “Europe’s leading omnichannel consumer electronics platform.”
On September 1, JD.com announced that it had issued a tender offer document through its wholly-owned indirect subsidiary, JINGDONG Holding Germany GmbH. The offer document relates to a voluntary public tender offer from all shareholders of CECONOMY, the parent company of European consumer electronics retailers MediaMarkt and Saturn, to acquire all issued and outstanding bearer shares of CECONOMY for €4.60 per share in cash.
The tender offer is open from September 1, 2025, to 6:00 p.m. (New York time) on November 10, 2025, and may be extended under certain circumstances. The tender offer will be funded through a combination of acquisition loans and existing cash on the company’s balance sheet.
According to data, CECONOMY, formerly a core business unit of the Metro Group, became a leading European consumer electronics retailer after its independence in 2017. Currently, the company operates over 1,000 stores in 12 European countries, with its core brands, MediaMarkt and Saturn, holding over 30% of the German market share.
Financial reports show that CECONOMY’s total sales for fiscal years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 were €20.831 billion, €21.361 billion, €21.768 billion, €22.242 billion, and €22.442 billion, respectively. Net profit for fiscal years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036, 2037, 2038, 2039, 2038, 2039, 2039, 2037, 2038, 2039 … He emphasized that JD.com would build teams locally, purchase locally, ship locally, and only sell branded products.
CECONOMY’s 1,000 offline stores in Europe not only provide JD.com with ready-made offline assets, but can also be transformed into “forward warehouses,” enabling fast fulfillment experiences like “one-hour delivery.” Furthermore, they can address JD.com’s shortcomings in local supply, allowing it to quickly establish a localized product pool and supply chain system, thereby eliminating the inefficiencies and high costs of relying on cross-border transportation.
In addition to the CECONOMY acquisition, JD.com also announced in August the completion of its acquisition of Hong Kong’s Jiabao Food Supermarket, officially entering the city’s physical retail landscape.
