JD.com takes majority stake in Ceconomy

JD.com completed the acquisition of 59.8% of Ceconomy on 12 November 2026, through a voluntary public cash offer launched sixteen months earlier at an enterprise value of €1–10bn. The Kellerhals family, through Convergenta Invest, retained 25.3% alongside the acquirer, bringing their combined holding to 85.2%, and the company was consolidated from that date. Ceconomy retails consumer electronics and domestic appliances across Europe under the MediaMarkt and Saturn names, and MediaWorld in Italy, operating approximately 1,070 stores across eleven countries with some 50,000 employees. Revenue reached €20–50bn in the year to September 2024, with an adjusted operating profit of 305 million euros rising to 378 million the following year. It recorded 2.2 billion customer contacts and more than 53 million loyalty members during 2025. Physical retail retains a larger share of European electronics sales than of American or Chinese ones, a product costing several thousand euros being one customers prefer to examine and discuss before buying, which is the asset the acquirer could not have built within a decade. The reverse constraint applied to the seller. Rapid delivery and data-driven merchandising require investment in warehousing and systems beyond what its cash generation permits while it also modernises its stores, which the acquirer’s logistics capability supplies. The offer carried no minimum acceptance condition, undertakings from Convergenta Invest, Franz Haniel & Cie and Beisheim Stiftung having secured 57.1% before the acceptance period opened. The German competition authority cleared the transaction on the absence of overlap, and foreign investment reviews followed in Germany, Austria, Spain and France alongside the European foreign subsidies procedure. The business continues to operate separately, retaining its Düsseldorf headquarters, its brands and its own systems, with employment commitments for three years and German co-determination arrangements preserved. Remko Rijnders succeeded Kai-Ulrich Deissner as chief executive, the latter having resigned in March 2026.