Meituan seeks to acquire Chinese operation of Dingdong for US$ 717 million.

Meituan, the Chinese food delivery giant, plans to acquire the China business of online grocery store Dingdong Fresh Holding, a subsidiary of Dingdong, for $717 million, in a move that could strengthen the company's position in the grocery retail market, as signaled this Thursday, 5. Dingdong, listed in the US, said in a separate statement that its international business is not part of the transaction. The fresh grocery e-commerce company operated more than a thousand front-end warehouses in China in September, with over seven million users transacting monthly. The deal comes as Meituan, a long-time leader in the food delivery business in China, has been under pressure from the e-commerce platform JD.com and Alibaba Group amid a brutal price war. The Beijing-based company ...