Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com to form joint ventures with Thai retailer Central Group

BANGKOK - China's second biggest e-commerce company JD.com and Top Thai retailer Central Group will jointly invest $500 million to establish two joint ventures in Thailand covering e-commerce and fintech services respectively, a statement from Central Group said on Friday.

According to the statement, Central Group will invest $250 million to the ventures, and the rest will come from JD.com, JD Finance and Provident Capital, which is also JD.com's strategic partner for its Indonesian e-commerce business.

JD.com will provide technology, e-commerce and logistics support to the e-commerce joint venture and provide its knowledge in financial technology sector to the fintech services joint venture.

Across both businesses, Central Group will leverage its retail resources, including its physical store network as well as its retail behavior insights from its customer loyalty program, "The 1 Card."

Central Group will open multiple flagship stores on the e-commerce platform for its department stores and key retail chains, as well as for select brands owned or operated by Central Group.

"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 Southeast Asia," Richard Liu, JD.com's chairman and CEO said in the statement.

Tos Chirathivat, CEO of Central Group, said that "Thailand's mobile-driven population means that e-commerce is ready to explode, and this partnership is poised to capture the country's consumers as they migrate online."

"This move marks a key step in Central Group's goal to become Thailand's online retail leader," he added.