Walmart wholly owns China's e-commerce platform Yhd

SHANGHAI - Walmart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, announced on Thursday it now wholly owns Yhd.com.

Walmart first invested in Yhd in 2011 and increased its stake to about 51 percent in 2012. It recently bought the remainder from Ping An Insurance, former Yhd chairman Yu Gang and former Yhd CEO Liu Junling. Yhd will retain its current brand and management.

Yu and Liu, co-founders of Yhd, announced earlier this month they had decided to leave the company.

The combination of local advantage of Yhd and Walmart's global procurement resources, retail stores and supply chain will help Walmart to bring cheap and quality products to Chinese consumers using a new approach, said Neil Ashe, president and CEO of global e-commerce at Walmart.

Walmart's investment in Yhd is part of its long-term commitment to China, he said.

Yhd was founded in July 2008 and is a small rival to Alibaba Group.