March, 2008

After a few days' silence, Gome has now made new headway in the acquisition of Sanlian Commercial Company and formally started its expansion in the Shandong market.

Sanlian has made an announcement that Gome has acquired 10.69% of its stake, and has hence become an actual controlling shareholder of the company. However the company says Gome will not make big adjustments on Sanlian's major businesses in the coming 12 months, nor will it carry out major asset restructure or arrangements.

However, Gome has recommended its president Chen Xiao, standing vice president Wang Junzhou, and vice president Zhou Yafei join Sanlian's board of shareholders. It has also promised to share the market resources with Sanlian to which it has pledged that it won't develop any franchise stores in Shandong so as to avoid competition with Sanlian.

At present, Gome occupies 18% of the China's home appliance market with 1200 stores.