Walmart sold JD.com stake for $3.6bn

Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), up 0.5% at $74.97, announced it had sold its entire stake in Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com.

The deal will bank around $3.6 billion of proceeds for the American retail giant. It saw Walmart sell 144.5 million JD.com shares at $24.95 each, a discount of 11% to the preceding day’s closing price.

Walmart had held the stake for eight years. Market pundits say the divestment comes as Walmart is exploring its own operations in China. Whilst Walmart stock edged higher, JD.com’s price plummeted losing over 5% on Nasdaq to $26.71 – having been as low as $26.71.