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Walmart has reduced its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com to zero as the world’s largest retailer focuses on expanding its own brands in the country.

The US retailer announced in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had completely sold its nearly 10 percent stake in the e-commerce company.

Walmart said it owned 289 million shares of JD.com as of Dec. 31, which would have been worth $4 billion at the end of trading in New York on Tuesday.

JD.com also announced that it had spent $390 million to buy back its own shares on Wednesday. The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell as much as 12 percent in early trading.

Walmart first acquired a stake in the group in 2016 in exchange for the sale of Chinese e-commerce site Yihaodian to JD.com. Walmart nearly doubled its stake later that year by continuing to invest in the Chinese group.

The deals led to increased cooperation between the two retailers, with Walmart and its subsidiary Sam’s Club opening stores on JD.com’s e-commerce platform and entering into a delivery partnership in some Chinese cities, among other things.

But JD.com faces growing e-commerce competition in China from emerging rival Pinduoduo as well as Alibaba. Goldman Sachs analysts estimate that PDD has now displaced JD.com as the second-largest e-commerce company in China.

JD.com increased its revenue by 1 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year and improved its profit by reducing the discounts offered to shoppers.

“Walmart invested nearly 10 years ago when JD.com and the e-commerce market were growing very fast,” said Li Chengdong, head of Chinese tech think tank Haitun. “The investment allowed them to learn from JD. Now they are doing well on their own in China, so the strategic value of the investment has been exhausted.”

Walmart is increasingly focused on building its own China business, and its Sam’s Club wholesale outlets are becoming increasingly popular with China’s discerning, price-conscious shoppers.

The US retailer said it would maintain its cooperation with JD.com and that the sale would enable it to “better focus on its strong development in China, including the operations of Walmart Supercenter and Sam’s Club, and allocate assets to other priorities”.

The company added that it had “achieved success by timely adjusting its asset portfolio in various markets around the world.”

The group’s sales in China rose by 16 percent to 17 billion dollars in the last fiscal year ended January 31, but the market contributed less than 4 percent to total sales.

Walmart’s share divestment comes after JD.com’s other major partner, Chinese social media group Tencent, distributed almost its entire 17 percent stake in the group to shareholders in 2022.

JD.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by William Sandlund in Hong Kong