(Yicai) Dec. 11 -- JD.Com is set to spend HKD3.5 billion (USD450 million) acquiring half of an office building in the heart of Hong Kong, expanding its presence in the city as the Chinese e-commerce giant builds out its local infrastructure, retail assets, and logistics capacity.

JD.Com's investment unit Jasmine Investment Development will buy a 50 percent stake in China Construction Bank Tower from Hong Kong-based builder Lai Sun Group, the seller's listed arms Lai Sun Garment International and Lai Sun Development jointly announced on Dec. 9. The deal is expected to be completed next month.

CCB Tower, a 27-storey building in Central, Hong Kong's central business district, was co-developed by Lai Sun Group and China Construction Bank and opened in 2014. JD.Com will own the exclusive rights to 12 floors, including the first-floor lobby.

JD.Com has been consistently optimistic about its development in Hong Kong, the Beijing-based firm told Yicai. The online retailer will continue to invest in its supply chain and promote the integration of retail, logistics, technology research and development, and other business units into the city to serve the local market, it added.

In August, JD.Com bought Hong Kong-based supermarket chain Kai Bo Food Supermarket, acquiring its local network of more than 90 stores. In addition, its courier arm JD Logistics opened an express operations center in Chai Wan district in March, its fifth such center in the city.

JD.Com is accelerating its expansion in Hong Kong partly because the growth of e-commerce users has peaked in the Chinese mainland, so it needs to tap new markets, according to Zhang Yi, chief executive of iiMedia Research. It can also leverage the special administrative region as a springboard into Southeast Asia and pave the way for further offshore growth, Zhang said.

JD.Com has stepped up its overseas expansion. In July, the company announced that it would buy and take private German retail giant Ceconomy, which owns electronics retailers MediaMarkt and Saturn, for EUR2.2 billion (USD2.6 billion), setting a record for a single acquisition by a Chinese e-commerce firm in Europe.

Ceconomy said earlier this month that JD.Com has amassed a 60 percent stake as part of the privatization process, putting the deal on track to close in the first half of next year.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev