Chinese retailer JD.com has agreed to form two joint ventures (JV) with a $500m aggregate investment with retail conglomerate Central Group in Thailand respectively covering e-commerce and fintech services.
Pursuant to the agreement, Central Group will contribute $250m towards the JVs, while the rest of the investment will be made by JD.com and its Indonesian e-commerce business partner JD Finance and Provident Capital.
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The proposed e-commerce JV is expected to leverage JD.com’s expertise in technology, e-commerce and logistics, while the fintech services JV will receive assistance from JD Finance.
Through the partnership, JD.com intends to continue its expansion into South-East Asia.
JD.com chairman and CEO Richard Liu said: “Thailand’s large population and developed infrastructure, including strong national logistics networks, give it tremendous potential for both e-commerce and fintech services.
“Working with Thailand’s strongest retail conglomerate, with a massive shopping mall and department store network, gives us a huge competitive advantage as we expand further into South-East Asia.”
Central Group’s physical store network will serve as omnichannel and payment locations for the JVs.
The businesses will also have access to the company’s brand and merchant relationships, in addition to its retail behaviour insights from its 1 Card customer loyalty programme.
Central Group is planning to open multiple flagship stores on the e-commerce platform for its department stores and retail chains in order to enhance the product portfolio, as well as fast-track its own omnichannel growth.
Image: Central Embassy shopping mall, Bangkok. Photo: courtesy of Pixabay via Wikipedia.
