E-Mart Sell its 6 China Stores to Chnese company

A Chinese retailer will buy six stores in China owned by South Korea‘s leading discount store chain E-Mart, Yonhap news agency reported.

New Hua Du Super Center Co., a hypermarkets chain operator, said it has agreed to acquire E-Mart’s three stores in Changzhou, and one each in Ningbo, Taizhou and Hangzhou for 125 million yuan (US$19.7 million) as the South Korean company is restructuring its Chinese business, .

E-Mart, an affiliate of South Korea’s second-largest retailer Shinsegae Co., opened its first Chinese store in February 1997 and has been operating 27 stores mostly in the northeastern region of China.

However, unsucessful operation of those stores hit the decion to sell of a part of total branches. Last year, the company made a net loss of 75 billion won ($68.6 million) from its Chinese business. It will continue to expand its stores into small and medium-size cities and into the western region of China, shifting its focus from the country‘s metropolitan cities, the company said and Yonhap news qouoted as saying.

The company wants to increase the number of its stores in China to 45, following the restructuring of stores that have been making losses, it added.

(아주경제 송지영 기자)