On Tuesday (September 9), Suning Easy Purchase announced that it is selling all the shares of 12 Carrefour China subsidiary companies at a price of 1 yuan (Chinese currency) each. Carrefour China is just one of the many large traditional supermarkets that have been continuously closing down. Due to the continuous impact of the downward trend in the Chinese economy and prolonged weak consumption, supermarkets like Yonghui, Darunfa, and others have been shutting down as well.
In the evening of September 9, Suning Easy Purchase announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Suning International’s wholly-owned subsidiary Carrefour China Holdings N.V. has sold 100% equity of 12 Carrefour subsidiary companies, including Changsha Shengming Business Management Co., Changsha Keyoushi Supermarket Co., and Jinan Keyoushi Business Co., to Shanghai Qiyu Jiafu Enterprise Service Partnership for a total of 12 yuan.
According to the asset evaluation report, as of March 31, 2025, the assessed value of the equity of all 12 target companies was negative, with Changsha Keyoushi showing a book value of -161.43 million yuan and an assessed value of -35.38 million yuan, while the assessed values of the other 11 companies were basically consistent with their book values.
The reason for the sale, as stated by Suning Easy Purchase, is that the traditional large-scale commercial supermarket business of Carrefour China’s subsidiary companies has been affected by external environmental factors, changes in consumer behavior, and their own liquidity issues. Due to the company’s inadequate liquidity to provide continuous financial support, they have gradually been shutting down the traditional commercial supermarket business since 2023.
Suning Easy Purchase is the retail business entity formed after Suning Electric’s renaming and transformation into an online and offline integrated business, which is a part of the Suning Group.
The report mentioned, “Due to industry trends, company’s own business strategies, and the impact of the epidemic, since 2022 and 2023, Carrefour has started closing stores in various cities in China.” The number of stores has decreased from 228 in 2020 to only 4 by the end of 2023, with stores remaining in Shanghai Gubei, Wanli, Chuansha, and Beijing Siyuanqiao.
Due to the long-term downturn in the real estate market and the continuous decline in the Chinese economy, trends like “consumption downgrading”, “unnecessary expenditure avoidance”, and “online shopping” have become common, leading to deteriorating business environment as important factors contributing to the collapse of traditional large supermarkets. Carrefour China is just one of the many large traditional supermarkets that are shutting down.
Yonghui Supermarket’s financial report for the first half of 2025 shows a 20.73% year-on-year decrease in operating income, with a net profit turning into a loss of 241 million yuan, closing 227 stores that were running at a loss.
On September 4, Changsha Darunfa Yuhua store posted a notice stating that the store will cease operations starting from September 28, 2025. As for the reason for the closure, a cashier said, “It seems like the contract expired, and this store has been losing money every day.”
In late August, Wal-Mart China issued a closure notice: the Beiguan Zhengjie store in Xi’an will cease all operations on September 7, 2025.
According to incomplete statistics, in 2024, at least 782 supermarkets nationwide closed down. This includes national and global brands such as Carrefour, BBK Supermarket, Yonghui Supermarket, Darunfa, Meishi Bailie, Quanwu Supermarket, as well as regional brands like GUIYIN Supermarket in Jinan and Fudi Supermarket in Hubei.
Additionally, in 2024, at least six supermarket brands including Fudi Supermarket, Shanghai City Supermarket City Shop, GUIYIN Supermarket, Lanhai Ainus Fresh Supermarket, Ganyuting Supermarket, and Xinglong Family closed down entirely.
Suning Easy Purchase also stated that the company is firmly focusing on its core business of home appliances and 3C products, continuing to streamline its non-core business units, and using multiple measures to further reduce the company’s debt levels, continuously mitigating the company’s debt burden.
In September 2019, Suning Easy Purchase’s wholly-owned subsidiary Suning International invested 4.8 billion yuan to acquire an 80% stake in Carrefour (China) Holding Co., Ltd, which became the controlling shareholder of Carrefour China.
Although the acquisition was intended to achieve synergies, the actual situation did not bring significant benefits as expected. Prior to the acquisition, Carrefour China’s business was already showing signs of fatigue. In 2017, Carrefour China suffered a loss of 1.099 billion yuan, followed by a loss of 578 million yuan in 2018. After the acquisition, Carrefour China’s losses continued to worsen, reaching losses of 2.832 billion yuan, 1.254 billion yuan, and 546 million yuan from 2022 to 2024, putting immense pressure on Suning Easy Purchase’s cash flow.
Currently, Suning Easy Purchase’s debt repayment ability is still under pressure, leverage is high, and liquidity is tight. The company’s asset-liability ratio has climbed from 63.77% in 2020 to 90.63% in 2024, and stood at 90.38% in the first quarter of 2025, significantly higher than the median value of 70.54% for comparable companies, indicating an imbalanced capital structure and weak risk resistance capability.
In fact, this is not the first time Suning Easy Purchase has sold the shares of Carrefour subsidiary companies. In June of this year, Suning International planned to sell the shares of 4 Carrefour companies in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shenyang, and Zhuzhou for 1 yuan each, which has attracted market attention.