Taiwan's Uni-President Enterprise and Uni-President Superstore held a major news conference on the Taiwan Stock Exchange late at night on Monday (19th), announcing that they would buy back 60 yuan from Carrefour in Taiwan from Carrefour in France for 29 billion yuan (NTD. The same below. About HK$7.6 billion). % shares.
After the transaction is completed, Uni-President Group will hold 100% of the equity in Taiwan's Carrefour, and will change its role from an investor in the past to an operator.
Uni-President Group currently operates about 6,503 7-Eleven (7-11) stores in Taiwan. It also operates chain stores such as Starbucks, Muji, and Kang Shimei, as well as online shopping malls such as Bloglai Bookstore.
This transaction will further strengthen Uni-President's dominant position in Taiwan's retail industry.
The acquisition includes Taiwan's Wellcome stores
In this acquisition, Carrefour spent NT$800 million to acquire the equity of Wellcome in Taiwan in June 2020, and took over the Taiwan Top Wellcome Supermarket (later renamed Carrefour Supermarket) and Jasons Top Supermarket.
However, in August of the following year, Reuters reported that Carrefour planned to sell its entire business in Taiwan, but Carrefour denied it at the time.
As of the Carrefour acquisition in 2020, the Hong Kong-based dairy company (Dairy Farm, now renamed DFI Retail Group) has operated the Wellcome supermarket in Taiwan for 33 years.
At present, DFI Retail Group is still operating IKEA in Taiwan, with 7 branches, 1 pickup center and 1 "IKEA Hej Mobile Store".
Carrefour just bought the stake in Taiwan's Wellcome two years ago and took over the operation of the "Dinghao Wellcome" supermarket.
(File photo/United Daily News)
Carrefour withdrew from Asian Taiwan business, revenue grew last year
The French supermarket giant Carrefour Group has more than 13,000 stores in nearly 40 countries, forming a sales network of diversified retail formats, and is one of the world's leading food retailers.
Carrefour Group's revenue in 2021 will be 81.2 billion euros, with more than 370,000 employees in stores, and more than 500,000 people worldwide work for Carrefour.
Carrefour Taiwan's consolidated revenue in 2021 will exceed NT$80 billion (approximately HK$21 billion), the number of members will reach 4.6 million, and the revenue will increase by 16.7%. It plans to strengthen the supermarket layout in the central and southern regions in 2022.
Carrefour has successively withdrawn from the Asian region in recent years, and Taiwan is the last stop.
In 2019, 80% of Carrefour China's equity was sold to local Suning Tesco for 4.8 billion yuan (about 5.6 billion Hong Kong dollars), at a lower price than this transaction.
However, Bloomberg reported in October last year that Suning.com planned to sell its entire stake in Carrefour.
Uni-President Group has been operating 7-Eleven convenience stores in Taiwan.
(file picture)
Unified and stable retail dominance
The Uni-President Group stated at the press conference that 35 years ago, Uni-President and the French Carrefour founding family jointly established Carrefour Taiwan and introduced the mass sales model to Taiwan.
In cooperation with the French shareholders planning to sell their shares in accordance with their global strategic considerations, Uni-President Group will give priority to take over the shares, and the two parties signed a share sale contract on the 19th.
After the transaction, Uni-President Group will obtain the operating rights of 340 stores in Taiwan, including 68 mass-market stores, 272 supermarkets and top supermarkets, 129 shopping malls, the right to use the Carrefour trademark, and some mass-market stores and logistics centers. Own land and assets.
Uni-President Group stated that this transaction still needs to obtain the approval of the Fair Trade Commission. It will submit a combined declaration operation to the Fair within 15 days after the signing of the contract. The general review time is about 4 to 6 months, and the delivery is expected to be completed in mid-2023.
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