Brussels in fact suspects that Jd.com received public subsidies from the Beijing government that enabled it to make a higher bid to take over the German group that controls the Mediaworld, MediaMarkt and Saturn chains. And which, in the future, may enable it to take advantage of the European market and distort competition, for instance by charging lower prices.
The EU Commission’s investigation aims in particular to ascertain whether Jd.com has received privileged loans, tax incentives and public subsidies from the Chinese state. Brussels believes it has already found some clues to this effect, but reserves the right to go deeper in the investigation, which will be concluded by 2 October
In France, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) meanwhile approved the proposedtakeover bid launched in January by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to take control of electronics and cultural products specialist Fnac Darty. This decision will allow him to rise above the 50% shareholding threshold and block the Chinese takeover attempt.
