JD.com wins EU approval for acquisition of Germany's Ceconomy

By Inti Landauro and Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com 9618.HK said it secured conditional EU approval on Tuesday for its $2.5 billion acquisition of German electronics retailer Ceconomy CECG.DE, and aims to close the deal by November 12.

The acquisition will help one of China's largest retailers to expand outside its home market via Ceconomy-owned electronic products retailers MediaMarkt and Saturn.

A person familiar with the matter had told Reuters last month that the European Commission, the EU competition enforcer, was set to approve the deal under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation that targets unfair foreign state aid.

The Commission was initially concerned that JD.com might have received preferential financing, tax incentives and grants from the Chinese government that may have helped it to offer a higher price for Ceconomy.

JD.com pledged to conduct intra-group transactions with Ceconomy on market terms, including financing, and to grant access to its warehousing and logistic services to third-party retailers on the same terms as those provided to Ceconomy, the Commission said.

It said the measures will prevent cross-subsidisation of JD.com's European operations.

"Our ambition is to support Ceconomy in accelerating its growth in a sustainable way, to further strengthen its competitive position in Europe and continue to innovate in an evolving retail market," JD.com Chief Executive Sandy Xu said in a statement.