Wal-Mart, JD Form Alliance That Values Wal-Mart's China Unit At $1.5 Billion

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT entered into an agreement with JD.Com Inc(ADR) JD to improve its presence in China. As part of the agreement, Wal-Mart will receive 144.95 million newly issued JD.com Class A ordinary shares, representing approximately 5 percent of all shares outstanding, or approximately $1.5 billion worth of stock.

Wal-Mart noted in its press release that the relationship with JD.com, one of China's largest eCommerce companies, will consist of "a wide range of business initiatives," including online and offline.

For Wal-Mart, the new relationship offers the opportunity to expand its e-Commerce presence and provides its stores and Sam's Clubs with potential traffic from JD.com's client base. On the other side of the agreement, JD.com will leverage its Yihaodian's strong brand and business in eastern and southern China to boost sales in grocery and household goods.

JD.com's customers will also gain access to imported items from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.

After being halted midday, JD shares recently traded at $21.65, up 7.5 percent on the day.

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"We're excited about teaming up with such a strong leader in JD.com, and the potential that this new relationship creates for customers in China, as well as for our businesses. We thank the Yihaodian associates for creating a strong brand and business that has helped lead to this opportunity with JD.com," said Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart. "JD.com shares similar values in making the lives of customers better. It also has a very complementary business and is an ideal partner that will help us offer compelling new experiences that can reach significantly more customers. We also look forward to offering customers a tremendous number of quality imported products not previously widely available in China through Walmart and Sam's Club."

"We are very happy to announce this landmark agreement between two leading retailers, which we are confident will help bring e-commerce in China to the next level and benefit millions of consumers," said Richard Liu, CEO of JD.com. "Walmart is synonymous with trusted-quality efficient retailing, and we believe that this tie up will increase both product selection and overall user experience. We look forward to further developing Yihaodian, which has tremendous strength in important regions of eastern and southern China. Yihaodian will continue offering the outstanding user experience its customers have come to expect, which we will further augment by leveraging our unparalleled logistics capabilities and breadth of product categories.