South Korea’s Lotte Shopping will pay HK4.87bn (US$628.6m) to acquire a majority stake in Chinese retailer Times, it confirmed today (20 October).
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The Korean retailer is thought to have outbid Beijing-based Wumart who reportedly offered around US$600m for Hong Kong-listed Times.
South Korea’s number two retailer is acquiring a 72.3% stake held by CS International, of which Times chairman Kenneth Fang is the largest shareholder. Lotte said in its announcement on the Hong Kong stock exchange that it plans to make an offer to buy the rest of the shares in the company, giving it full control of Times. It would then withdraw from the stock market.
The deal underlines how keen foreign firms are to expand in the Chinese market, said Mavis Hui, retail analyst with DBS Vickers in Hong Kong. “This is quite a sizeable deal. It’s not a bad price for food retail.”
Times owns 65 hypermarkets and supermarkets in east China’s Jiangsu province, allowing Lotte to significantly expand its operations in China.
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By GlobalData“The Korean retail market is saturated compared to the China market. They [Lotte] have been looking for new growth opportunities in China,” said Han Kook Hee, analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Seoul.
Lotte said on Friday that it planned to invest KRW732.7bn (US$622m) in its Hong Kong unit to fund expansion in China and Hong Kong.
The retailer has also moved into Russia, Indonesia and Vietnam in recent years.
