Thread: Carrefour to exit Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia

Originally Posted by Humbert

^ I hope it doesn't happen. PTT is rife with bueaucracy and cronyism. Retailers need to be nimble and react quickly to conditions and opportunites.

Just like their petrol stations, they'll probably refuse credit cards. What a waste of retail space if some rat infested boondoggle like PTT goes retail.. Floor to ceiling with what - motor oil? Or some inferior frozen foods and other junk? Thailand's "Iceland".

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

Just like their petrol stations, they'll probably refuse credit cards. What a waste of retail space if some rat infested boondoggle like PTT goes retail.. Floor to ceiling with what - motor oil? Or some inferior frozen foods and other junk? Thailand's "Iceland".

Takes them months to decide upon a font. Can't wait to see how they ruin a retail franchise with their dithering.

Carrefour bidders shortlisted to four

• Published: 20/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Business

The second round of bidding for the assets of Carrefour in Thailand will become more intense as three giant Thai corporations eye the prize: the cash-rich oil giant PTT; Central Group, the country's largest retail chain; and the trading group Berli Jucker (BJC), majority-owned by liquor billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.

Mr Charoen may find it very difficult to return from France empty-handed after BJC reportedly offered the highest bid in the first round. He is expected to bid even higher in the second round.
Acquiring the Thai assets of the French hypermarket chain, estimated to be worth 16-19 billion baht, will fulfill Mr Charoen's mission to create a diversified conglomerate.
Currently, his empire includes beer (Thai Beverage), spirits, hospitality, property (TCC Capital Land), trading (BJC), retailing, and Japanese-style food and beverage (Oishi Group).
BJC distributes food, consumer goods, industrial materials, pharmaceuticals, packaging and technology. Consumer goods brands include Parrot soap, Cellox tissue paper and Dusty potato chips.
Acquiring the Carrefour assets would give BJC a stronger distribution network across the country with 43 prime locations, but Mr Charoen is also interested in the 10-plus construction licences for pending developments in the future.
"We want BJC to have complete downstream and upstream trading. We plan to buy Carrefour's assets through BJC alone or by joining with partners to increase our strength" said Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, a son of Mr Charoen and a director of BJC.
The fourth contender for Carrefour's Thai network is the French retailer Casino Group. There have been conflicting reports about whether UK-based Tesco is still in the hunt.
BJC generated revenue last year of 23.13 billion baht, about seven times lower than PTT, which earned 1.62 trillion baht. Mr Charoen's personal wealth is about 129 billion baht. The main weak point of BJC is a lack of experience in hypermarket management.
Central Group is serious about returning to the hypermarket sector after pioneering it before the 1997 financial crisis. Central once held 40% in CenCar Co, the current operator of Carrefour in Thailand. It sold the shares in CenCar after the crisis to focus on its core department store business.
At that time, Central Retail Corporation also wholly owned Big C Supercenter and sold some shares to Casino. The latter has since raised its ownership to 68% while CRC holds 20%.
"The CEO management board of Central has agreed to buy Carrefour," said an industry source.
Prior to this, Tos Chirathivat, the CEO of CRC, said it had almost 20 billion baht available to expand the businesses via mergers and acquisitions.
The key strength of CRC is its 60-year retail history. It also has gained expertise from its international partners such as Ahold, the Netherlands-based retail giant and owner of Tops supermarkets.
Prasert Bunsumpun, president and CEO of PTT, tried to negotiate to open PTT petrol stations at Big C stores in the past, but got no response.
A local securities analyst said PTT was very serious about its offer because it wants to diversify to the retail sector to get a new customer base.
PTT previously bought Jet fuel stations from US-based Conoco Philips, including the Jiffy mini-marts inside the stations.

Meh.

It will still be a crap supermarket with slow service whomever ends up with it.

Foodland still way out in front.

Originally Posted by Nostradamus

Foodland still way out in front.

Except they have a crap bakery. Its funny they haven't figured that out in all these years of competition eating their shorts.

Thailand’s PTT Withdraws Carrefour Offer
September 22, 2010



PTT, the Thai energy company, said Wednesday that it had withdrawn its bid for the local assets of Carrefour, as the French retail chain tries to get out of its Southeast Asian units, thought to be worth $1 billion.

A spokeswoman for PTT in Bangkok told DealBook that stakeholders in the state-run company had decided the bid should be dropped.

After PTT announced the bid, the government questioned the move on the grounds that state-run companies are discouraged from competing with private enterprise in the country’s constitution.

PTT was bidding for Carrefour’s Thai stores through its subsidiary, PTT Retail Management, which runs the Jiffy convenience stores.

dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com

Originally Posted by taxexile

i dont think it has got much to do with the stores serving large farang populations, but more to do with who is in competition next door.

tesco and carrefour are neighbours on rama 4 and both need to put some effort into their operations, raise their standards of both stock and customer care above the usual thai norm getting away with the least possible effort.

a store with no immediate competion becomes lazy, like tesco in hua hin. its a bit of a dump really. poorly stocked and overpriced with checkout girls who are well trained in pouting but poorly trained in engaging with customers.

Tesco Locust nearest me smells like souring meat.

Bidders circle Carrefour's Southeast Asian assets

A bidding war is heating up for Carrefour's supermarkets in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore as the French retail giant plans its exit after failing to take a dominant position in the region.

Carrefour, the world's second-biggest retailer behind US colossus Wal-Mart, is looking to offload its 43 Thai, 23 Malaysian and two Singaporean hypermarkets in a sale some estimates suggest could net a billion dollars.

Analysts believe Carrefour's eagerness to sell up reflects the fact that, despite its large foothold and the robust health of the markets, the firm has trailed competitors such as Britain's Tesco in terms of market share.

"Carrefour is the second-biggest retailer in the world. Perhaps being in last place in Thailand is a reason they want to sell their business here," said Jit Siratranont, deputy secretary general of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

One European banker went further.

"They did not succeed in achieving their goal and getting themselves in a dominant position," he said, but "there is every indication that the market is promising because there are many contenders" to buy the stores.

Carrefour refuses to comment on the matter, but it acknowledges that it is ready to consider offers in the countries where it is not a market leader and has little prospect of becoming one.

It is therefore likely to cede its network in these three major markets, which enjoy steady growth and can rely on a combined population of over 100 million people.

Potential buyers are circling, with a second round of bidding expected by November.

"The long-term potential for these assets makes them worth investing in," Jon Wright, a London-based retail analyst with market intelligence firm Euromonitor International, told AFP.

With a supply chain in place, the task for buyers would be to improve margins to boost profits, he said.

According to Wright, the supermarket sector in Asia was worth 389 billion dollars in 2009 and is expected to grow by 3.3 percent a year between now and 2014, compared with around 2.1 percent growth forecast globally.

In Thailand, a raft of international players have been linked to the bidding in recent weeks, including retailers Tesco, Japan's Aeon and France's Casino.

Thai companies have also been tipped as potential buyers, including retailer Central Group, consumer goods and manufacturing firm Berli Jucker PCL and majority state-owned energy giant PTT.

PTT however recently indicated it was not interested, while the Wall Street Journal has reported Aeon -- which snapped up Carrefour's Japanese assets in 2005 -- as well as Tesco were struck off for bidding too low.

According to Kim Eng Securities strategist Mayuree Chowvikran, Berli Jucker PCL and Casino are likely to be the key bidders in Thailand.

Singapore may be a smaller market but it has an affluent population, including a large expatriate community.

"Those who know how to adapt to the local market are doing relatively well. Despite the competition, there is still money to be made" in the city-state, said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with Malaysian bank CIMB.

Malaysia also appears to be drawing interest, with deputy trade minister Mukhriz Mahathir telling AFP in August that "other hypermarkets are keen to take over" Carrefour's business in the country.

"There are many suitors," he said.

Carrefour has, paradoxically, recently announced the opening of two new stores in central Selangor state in Malaysia.

Manokaran Mottain, senior economist at AmResearch, said he believed Malaysia offered some interesting opportunities as "the retail market is doing well with domestic spending looking good."

He believed the motivation behind Carrefour's desire to retreat from the market could either be because they are over-stretched, or that they are on the look-out for yet more lucrative markets.

"Definitely India will be a great market. India can provide Carrefour with great potential," he said.

Carrefour will open its first wholesale megastore in Delhi in November and said it has already been in discussion with potential partners over opening traditional hypermarkets there.

uk.news.yahoo.com

Heard that Casino another French retailer is interested, it would be nice to have a touch of France here, pricey but they know western food..

^

Carrefour is already French.

I am hoping Central take over, but frankly anything is better than Tesco.

Villa all the way.

Originally Posted by Mid

"The long-term potential for these assets makes them worth investing in," Jon Wright, a London-based retail analyst with market intelligence firm Euromonitor International, told AFP. With a supply chain in place, the task for buyers would be to improve margins to boost profits, he said.

I thought the fixed assets were on the market, not the supply chain. If Central group acquires the assets and the stores become Big C, presumably they will not carry Carrefour brands.

Originally Posted by 12Call

Villa all the way.

Villa?? Give me a break .. Everything is 20% more than ANYWHERE else. Though they have a good wine selection

I'd say we have enough Euro-Brit hypermarkets here already. A Japanese competitor might be just the thing.. (though as a farang I'd prefer Casino or Wall Mart)

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

Originally Posted by 12Call

Villa all the way.

Villa?? Give me a break .. Everything is 20% more than ANYWHERE else. Though they have a good wine selection

I'd say we have enough Euro-Brit hypermarkets here already. A Japanese competitor might be just the thing.. (though as a farang I'd prefer Casino or Wall Mart)

Villa offer quality on all products under the one roof that leave the rest miles behind.

I'm not the type to run around from one store to another looking to save money and then find they have stopped stocking the required product or just out of stock.

You take in all that running around then 20% (if you say) versus wasted time and still end up without what is on the shopping list is peanuts.

I'd also like to see a Foodland open in my area.. with the lunch counter (Took Lae Dee)

Originally Posted by 12Call

Villa offer quality on all products under the one roof that leave the rest miles behind.

Villa is a boutique grocery for farangs with upscale cravings. Some people actually have to buy boring things like laundry detergent and toilet bowl cleaner.

Originally Posted by Humbert

Originally Posted by 12Call

Villa offer quality on all products under the one roof that leave the rest miles behind.

Villa is a boutique grocery for farangs with upscale cravings. Some people actually have to buy boring things like laundry detergent and toilet bowl cleaner.

Your requested products are also available from Villa.

If you run a business that require your mentioned products I would suggest Makro or nearest hypermarket.

Casino acquires Carrefour's Thai supermarkets

Casino, the French retailer, is poised to acquire 40 Thai supermarkets from Carrefour, for more than €700m, beating Tesco, the world’s third biggest supermarket by sales in a hotly contested auction

ft.com

^
Glad Tesco didn't get it and also encouraging that another french retailer picked it up - maintaining western competition in the foods market is a good thing

Originally Posted by 12Call

Villa offer quality on all products under the one roof that leave the rest miles behind.

Foodland is better IMO.

I still wish Walmart would buy it. They would run Tesco out of Thailand and back to Britain as thoroughly the Germans did at Dunkirk.

^ none of the superstores here are run as well as they are in other countries. The services stinks and the products are limited and lacking in quality. Customers in Thailand don't demand better so they don't get it. Quality should be rising but it seems to be stuck or even falling in most places besides downtown BKK supermarkets. Maybe it's symbolic of the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. Anyways that's my opinion.

Carrefour sells Thai business to Bic G

Carrefour announces today the signing of an agreement with Big C Supercentre Plc, a subsidiary of Groupe Casino in Thailand, for the divestment of its operations in Thailand for an enterprise value of 868 million euro.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.

This valuation corresponds to 120 per cent of the net sales of the business that is being sold and a multiple of 13.0 x EBITDA.

In a statement, Carrefour said that the decision to sell its operations in Thailand is part of its strategy to focus its resources on markets where it holds a leadership position and optimize its capital employed.

Carrefour's growth prospects in Thailand did not allow the Group to envisage occupying a leading position in this market in the medium- or long-term.

Present in Thailand since 1996, Carrefour operates 42 stores including 34 hypermarkets (7 in full ownership).

Carrefour is the fifth-biggest player in organized food distribution in Thailand with a market share of 6 per cent, net sales of 723 million euro and EBITDA of 67 million euro over a twelve-month period to 30 June 2010.

Big C is the second hypermarket operator in Thailand, with a portfolio of 69 hypermarkets and net sales of 1.7 billion euro over a twelve-month period to June 2010.

nationmultimedia.com

Shit I was hoping we might move up. The Carrefour in Bali was one of the nicest supermarkets I have ever been in. A full western deli. Meat counter, seafood counter, Bakery, even the fresh veggies are bathed in a rain forest of mist every 10 minutes. Its organized and best of all they have people at the check out counters. You get a discount of 3% if you bring your own bags.

It was heaven, I have seen nothing like it ever here in Thailand. Big wide aisles as well.