JD.com has taken control of Ceconomy, the German owner of the MediaMarkt and Saturn chains, completing a takeover that gives the Chinese retailer more than 1,000 stores across Europe. The Beijing-based company said on Thursday, Nov. 12, that it had acquired 59.8% of Ceconomy's share capital and voting rights for a total of 1.335 billion euros, paying 4.60 euros a share in cash.

The purchase puts a major European store network under the control of a Chinese e-commerce group. For investors in the Hong Kong-listed shares, the practical change is in the accounts: JD.com said Ceconomy becomes a subsidiary and its results are consolidated into JD.com's financial statements from Nov. 12. That means the German group's revenue will flow into JD.com's fourth-quarter numbers.

How JD.com's Ceconomy stake is split

JD.com made the offer through Jingdong Holding Germany, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary. The Kellerhals family, co-founders of MediaMarkt, keeps its stake of about 25.3% through its holding company Convergenta. Together the two partners own 85.2% of Ceconomy, JD.com said.

According to Paperjam, a Luxembourg business outlet, JD.com will also receive the voting rights attached to the Convergenta stake. When JD.com announced the plan in July 2025, the deal was valued at about 2.2 billion euros, according to the Belga news agency.

Completion followed the last outstanding approvals, which JD.com listed as merger control, foreign investment and European Union foreign subsidies clearance. The European Commission cleared the acquisition on Nov. 3 after an investigation, opened in May, into whether subsidies JD.com received in China could distort competition in Europe. Capital Times reported on the 10-year conditions the EU attached. Paperjam reported that the commitments require dealings between the two groups at market rates and oblige JD.com to offer certain logistics and technology services to third-party retailers on equivalent terms, under an independent trustee.

What JD.com gets in Europe

Ceconomy runs more than 1,000 consumer electronics stores in 11 markets under the MediaMarkt, Saturn and MediaWorld brands, alongside its online shops, JD.com said. The business employs more than 50,000 people and in 2025 had more than 53 million loyalty members and 2.2 billion annual customer contacts.

The Duesseldorf-based retailer is large but runs on slim margins. Paperjam put its revenue for the 2024-25 financial year at 23.1 billion euros and its adjusted operating result at 378 million euros, a margin of about 1.6%.

JD.com's own scale is several times larger. Its 2025 revenue rose 13% to 1.31 trillion yuan (about $187 billion), while net profit attributable to shareholders fell to 19.6 billion yuan from 41.4 billion yuan, Paperjam reported.

The company has promised a light touch. JD.com said Ceconomy will remain a stand-alone business in Europe with its own technology stack, and that no changes are planned to the workforce, employee agreements or sites. Chief Executive Sandy Xu said the two companies share a vision of building "Europe's leading next-generation consumer electronics platform." Ceconomy Chief Executive Remko Rijnders said the company could now combine its local customer relationships with JD.com's technology and logistics capabilities.

The European store network adds a physical channel to Joybuy, the online platform JD.com launched in March 2026 that covers Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and the U.K., according to Paperjam.

Fnac Darty and the results calendar

The deal also brings JD.com an indirect position in France. Ceconomy is the second-largest shareholder of French retailer Fnac Darty, Belga reported, and the takeover raised concerns in France about Fnac Darty's future. JD.com's statement did not address the holding.

For Asian investors, the acquisition is a test of whether a Chinese platform can apply its supply chain and logistics model to a low-margin European retailer under regulatory supervision. JD.com has framed the purchase as a partnership rather than a turnaround, and the EU conditions limit how freely the two groups can share services.

The next data point comes quickly. JD.com's board will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 17, to approve results for the three months ended Sept. 30, and the company will post them to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the market closes there, according to a filing. Management will hold a conference call at 8 p.m. Hong Kong time that day. Those third-quarter figures predate the deal, so the first numbers that include MediaMarkt and Saturn will come in JD.com's fourth-quarter report.