Walmart unwinds JD.com investment, to focus on own China ops

By Kane Wu, Summer Zhen

HONG KONG (Reuters) -Walmart sold its entire roughly $3.7 billion stake in JD.com, ending an eight-year investment in the Chinese e-commerce firm that was yielding waning returns, and the U.S. retail giant said it would focus on its own operations in China.

The move comes as competition for online shoppers' money in China has led to steep discounts from companies including JD.com as well as Alibaba, which has squeezed their margins.

"This decision allows us to focus on our strong China operations for Walmart China and Sam's Club, and deploy capital towards other priorities," Walmart said in a statement, adding it was committed to a continued commercial relationship with the Chinese company, which carries Walmart goods on its website.

Walmart invested in JD.com in 2016 by selling its Chinese online grocery store Yihaodian to JD.com in return for a 5% stake in JD.com itself. In the same year, Walmart raised its holdings in JD.com to more than 10%.

Shares of JD.com have fallen around 70% from their peak in early 2021 and prices are close to the levels in 2016. JD.com sales growth has stagnated after the pandemic as shoppers have flocked to rival low-cost e-commerce firm Pinduoduo.

The US retailer's share sale was fully subscribed, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday, and would be worth $3.74 billion at the top end of the offered range.

"Walmart wanted to get exposure in China in 2016 and kind of learned the retail business there," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at investment firm Great Hill Capital. "They did it and they expressed that interest through JD and now they have their own exposure and their own interests in China, and they no longer need a minority position in JD when they have a great business themselves."

JD.com said in a statement on Wednesday it was confident about the future cooperation between the two companies. As part of the original contract, Walmart and JD.com worked together to leverage their supply chains, broadening the range of imported products for Chinese consumers.

JD.com's Hong Kong-listed shares closed nearly 9% lower on Wednesday. Its U.S.-listed shares were down 5% in midday trading.

Shares of Walmart were up 0.6% on Wednesday, after hitting a record high of $75.58.    

In the latest quarter, Walmart reported a 17.7% year-on-year rise in revenue from its China business to $4.6 billion on the back of strong growth in its Sam's Club warehouse chain and its digital offering. 

Its membership income in China from its Sam's Club business grew 26% as member count continues to increase. The company has about 48 clubs in China.

Walmart offered 144.5 million American depositary shares of JD.com in the price range of $24.85 to $25.85, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. Morgan Stanley was the broker-dealer of the offering. 

The shares were offered at a discount of up to 11.8% to Tuesday's closing price of $28.19. Morgan Stanley did not respond to a request for comment.

The stake sale allows Walmart to raise capital and refocuses JD.com on its core online business, but a strategic partnership between the pair can continue, especially in data sharing, said Jeffrey Towson, a Beijing-based partner at TechMoat Consulting.

(Reporting by Kane Wu and Summer Zhen in Hong Kong, Sophie Yu in Beijing; Ananya Mariam Rajesh, Aishwarya Venugopal and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Deborah Sophia; Editing by Jamie Freed, Janane Venkatraman, Devika Syamnath, and Sayantani Ghosh)