Dairy Farm International Holdings has confirmed the completion of its acquisition of a 19.99 per cent strategic stake in Yonghui Superstores.

The company on Wednesday settled the deal with the subscription of 813,100,468 new shares in Yonghui Superstores at a price of RMB7 per share, for a total consideration of RMB5.69 billion (approximately US$909 million).

Dairy Farm announced the investment on August 11 last year and since then has been acquiring regulatory approval and addressing other conditions.

Wholly-owned subsidiary, The Dairy Farm Company, has bought the stake in Yonghui which has 288 hypermarkets and supermarkets across 17 Chinese provinces.

Dairy Farm, which operates 6100 outlets comprising supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, health and beauty stores, home furnishings stores and restaurants worldwide, says the acquisition is aimed at taking a larger share of China’s modern food retailing sector.

“As a leading Asian retailer, Dairy Farm has for some time been looking for opportunities to participate in the large and high growth Chinese market. This strategic partnership with Yonghui provides an attractive way to do that,” Dairy Farm Group CEO Graham Allan at the time the deal was announced.

(Photo: Staff make fresh sausages inside a Yonghui Superstore in China. Image by http://www.shafir.info/)