Chinese retail giant Suning said Friday it has acquired 80 percent of French supermarket Carrefour's China business as it aims to tap online food sales and expand its physical presence. Three months after the agreement was first announced, Nanjing-based Suning said in a statement posted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that it paid 4.8 billion yuan ($670 million) in the cash transaction completed on Thursday.

"The comprehensive digitization of retail elements is the first priority of traditional retail industry facing future development," said Suning Holdings Group's CEO Zhang Jindong in a letter to welcome 30,000 Carrefour workers in China. One of the world's biggest food retailers, Carrefour is in the middle of a major reorganisation after repeated losses. The deal in June valued its Chinese operations at 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion). Suning's stock was up 0.49 percent at 10.32 yuan.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019