JD Health buys pet care business

The acquisition was worth $355.4m.

JD Health has acquired assets of the pet care business from controlling shareholder JD.com, a move that is seen to improve the veterinary services of the company’s internet pet hospital. 

In a statement, JD.com said the acquisition of the company’s healthcare unit JD Health pertains to the purchase of pet health products categories which include prescription drugs/prescription diet, pet nutrition, pet deworming, pet milk powder, and pet mouth, ear, and eye cleaning products, amongst others.

“JD.com, the controlling shareholder of JD Health, believes that the acquisition will help further integrate professional veterinary services, offering quality products to customers and creating a comprehensive ecosystem with one-stop solutions to meet users’ pet-healthcare needs,” the statement read.

In a disclosure, JD Health said the asset acquisition was worth $355.4m (RMB2.38b). Under the sale and purchase agreement, the amount consists of an initial price of $329.1m for the assets other than the inventories and the value of its inventories which should not exceed $26.3m.

The internet pet hospital launched in October 2021 provides online and offline pet care with services ranging from pet diet, disease prevention and veterinary medicine, and healthcare advice, to pet behaviour training, amongst others.

More than 5,000 veterinarians are registered with JD’s pet hospital, providing 24/7 online consultations in seven departments, including dogs, cats, and general practitioners.

The hospital also provides dull process services to meet the healthcare needs of pets in different scenarios such as specialist centres, pre-diagnosis consultations, post-diagnosis health management, online follow-ups, hospital visits, and more, according to JD.

JD.com added that it is the first online pet hospital in China that passed the ISO 9001 quality management system standard in April.