Suning completes purchase of Carrefour China

Shanghai: Chinese retail giant Suning said on Friday it has acquired 80 percent of French supermarket Carrefour´s China business as it aims to tap online food sales and expand its physical presence.

Three months after the agreement was first announced, Nanjing-based Suning said in a statement posted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it paid 4.8 billion yuan ($670 million) in the cash transaction completed on Thursday.

"The comprehensive digitization of retail elements is the first priority of traditional retail industry facing future development," said Suning Holdings Group´s CEO Zhang Jindong in a letter to welcome 30,000 Carrefour workers in China.

One of the world´s biggest food retailers, Carrefour is in the middle of a major reorganisation after repeated losses. The deal in June valued its Chinese operations at 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion). Suning´s stock was up 0.49 percent at 10.32 yuan.

China´s economy is expanding at a slower pace after years of breakneck growth and Beijing has been pushing to boost local consumption amid a global economic slowdown and lingering US-China trade uncertainties. International food retailers have had a rough ride in China. German wholesaler Metro is in the process of selling its operations to a local bidder and British grocery giant Tesco pulled out of the Chinese market in 2014.