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Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com eyes retreat from joint ventures in Indonesia and Thailand to sharpen focus on home market
- The company has been looking for an investor to take over its interest in JD.ID, its Indonesian joint venture with Provident Capital
- It has also been working to exit from JD Central, the Thai joint venture with Bangkok-based Central Group
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Ben Jiangin Beijing
JD.com is pondering a retreat from major markets in Southeast Asia, as the Chinese e-commerce giant sharpens its focus on cutting losses in the region and bolstering operations in its home market, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Beijing-based JD.com intends to pull back from its businesses in Indonesia and Thailand, where sales growth has been a challenge for several years, the sources said.
The company has been looking for an investor to take over its interest in JD.ID, a joint venture that it formed in 2015 with Singapore-headquartered private equity firm Provident Capital Partners, according to three people close to the Indonesian e-commerce platform.
It has also been working to exit from Thai joint venture JD Central, which was formed in 2017 with Bangkok-based retail and property development conglomerate Central Group.
News of JD.com’s efforts to pull out from those two Southeast Asian joint ventures were initially reported by Chinese media Xiaguangshe, citing sources who said the company’s expansion in the two markets had cost it more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.39 billion) over the past eight years.
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