The world's major retailers, facing reports that the China market is becoming saturated, are increasingly turning to mergers and acquisitions to advance their expansion plans.

Given the difficulty of finding a good location to build a new store from the ground up, the big retailers from overseas will follow industry trends in other sectors and start snapping up existing businesses, industry analysts said.

The most recent acquisition involved Best Buy Co Inc, which bought a majority stake in Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co Ltd - China's fourth-largest home appliance chain. With the deal, Best Buy became the first foreign home-appliance chain to acquire a Chinese outfit.

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