Thread: Thailand's CP ALL Will Offer to Acquire Siam Makro

Thailand's CP ALL Will Offer to Acquire Siam Makro -Source
Prudence Ho
Yvonne Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this article.
April 22, 2013

CP ALL PCL (CPALL.TH), the operator of convenience stores under the 7-Eleven brand in Thailand, plans to make a takeover offer for Siam Makro Pcl (MAKRO.TH), a retailer with a market capitalization of US$5.7 billion, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter Monday.

It isn't clear at the moment how much CP ALL will offer for Siam Makro, which was suspended from trading Monday and said in a regulatory filing it is in the process of disclosing significant information.

CP ALL and Siam Makro couldn't be immediately be reached for comment.

Siam Makro, which was founded in 1988, operates the Makro discount store chain, selling food and consumer products to wholesalers, retailers, small businesses, caterers and private individuals.

The company has around 10 branches in Bangkok and more branches throughout Thailand.

foxbusiness.com

Thailand’s CP Group in Potential Multi-Billion Retail Deal
Isabella Steger
Apr 22, 2013

The 7-Eleven Inc. logo is displayed at a convenience store, operated by CP All Pcl CPALL.TH -5.95%, in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012.Bloomberg News

Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont could soon be spending billions of dollars again in yet another big Southeast Asia consumer deal.

As The Wall Street Journal reports Monday, CP All PCL, which operates 7-Eleven convenience stores in Thailand, is planning to make an offer for retailer Siam Makro PCL MAKRO.TH +3.33%, which has a market capitalization of around $5.7 billion.

Mr. Dhanin is best-known for purchasing HSBC Holdings PLC’s 16% stake in Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd., a $9.4 billion transaction that closed earlier this year. He bought the stake, mainly financed by UBS, through his agribusiness company Charoen Pokphand Group. CP All is a unit of CP Group.

CP All is a unit of CP Group.

CP All said in an interview in January that it also plans to expand into China and is seeking approval from 7-Eleven’s U.S.-based franchise owner to start running the stores in the country.

Siam Makro operates the Makro discount stores around Thailand, and is controlled by privately-held Dutch company SHV Holdings NV.

Southeast Asia has been a hotbed for consumer-related deals in recent months. For example, private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners raised around $1.3 billion from selling nearly half of its stake in Indonesia’s Matahari Department Store in March. Another Thai tycoon, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, bought Singapore conglomerate Fraser & Neave Ltd. this year, valuing the company at $11.2 billion.

blogs.wsj.com

As if they don't own enough of this country already

This country desperately needs a decent inheritance tax law

a nice 75% you would be for ?????

They will buy Makro and fill it with Thai shit, goodbye decent place to buy Farang shit.

Thai tycoon adds to record debt pile with $6.6B Siam Makro offer
KHETTIYA JITTAPONG and SAEED AZHAR
April 23, 2013

Bangkok-Singapore — Thailand's richest man is offering $6.6 billion to buy cash-and-carry wholesaler Siam Makro Pcl. from Dutch firm SHV Holdings, the biggest Asia-Pacific M&A deal announced this year, adding to his debt load to grab more of the buoyant Thai retail market.

The country's biggest convenience store chain CP All Pcl., controlled by Dhanin Chearavanont, is gunning to push deeper into Thailand's $80 billion retail sector just two months after Dhanin completed a deal to buy a $9.4 billion stake in Ping An Insurance Group of China from HSBC Plc.

The more than $11 billion in loans that Dhanin-backed entities alone have taken on this year is, for Thailand, the largest offshore borrowing amount ever recorded by Thomson Reuters-LPC data, which goes back to 1992.

The latest deal, primarily funded by a $6 billion loan, will combine the operators of Thailand's biggest convenience stores and cash-and-carry businesses, giving CP All greater bargaining power in sourcing supplies and the muscle to expand in Southeast Asia.

"This is a format that has been very successful in Thailand and could be rolled out to Southeast Asia more generally," said David Chin, co-head of investment banking in Asia for UBS, which was among the lead arrangers for CP All for financing of the Siam Makro Pcl. transaction.

Thai companies have been on an acquisition binge in the last two years, encouraged by cheap bank debt, rising cash piles and surging share prices. That took Thai M&A volume to a record $25.9 billion last year.

CP All holds more cash than all but one Southeast Asian retailer, according to Thomson Reuters data, with $1.15 billion in cash and equivalents, just behind SM Investments which has $1.8 billion. The world's third-largest operator of 7-Eleven stores, CP All aims to have 10,000 of the outlets in Thailand by 2018.

Dhanin and SHV founded Siam Makro in 1988, and by 1997 Dhanin's Charoen Pokpphand (CP) group was its biggest shareholder. The crash of the Thai baht in 1997 forced Dhanin to sell holdings including Siam Makro and Lotus Supercenter, which was acquired by British retailer Tesco Plc.

The offer values Siam Makro at 53 times historic price-to-earnings, making it the most expensive retail stock in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Debt-backed

This is the second debt-backed deal by companies linked to Dhanin in the last three months. The Ping An stake buy was part-funded with a $5.5 billion loan from UBS, Reuters previously reported.

The Siam Makro deal will be funded by a $6 billion loan arranged by HSBC, Siam Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered, Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and UBS, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity because financing details are not public.

CP All, which will be the borrower, said it does not plan to issue new shares.

HSBC was the sole advisor to SHV Holdings, while Siam Commercial Bank advised CP All, the people familiar with the transaction said.

Other companies that earlier showed interest in Siam Makro included Berli Jucker Pcl., a trading firm controlled by beer tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and Central Group, Thai media reports previously said.

"CP All is the only bidder to offer the price. It seems like the deal was done before other bidders joined the bid," said a source with direct knowledge of the offer, speaking on condition of anonymity as the deal was confidential.

CP All's offer represents a 15.4 percent premium to Siam Makro's last traded price on Friday, before its shares were halted on Monday pending an announcement.

CP All's $6.6 billion offer for Siam Makro would be the biggest retail M&A in the world this year, and double the size of the No. 2 deal, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Siam Makro, controlled by privately held Dutch trading house SHV Holdings, has 58 Makro-branded outlets in Thailand, mainly selling food in bulk to hotels, restaurants and smaller retail outlets. It made a 2012 net profit of 3.56 billion baht ($124.11 million), up 36 percent year-on-year, but it has been the country's slowest-expanding retailer as a result of stricter rules on large stores.

Competition for Thai shoppers' business has intensified since the Chirathiwat family, which owns the country's largest retailer Central Group, bought a stake in the local unit of Japanese-based Family Mart last year.

Lawson Inc., Japan's second-largest convenience store chain, has also formed a joint venture with Saha Pattanapibul Pcl., part of the Saha Group, Thailand's leading maker and distributor of consumer products.

Earlier on Tuesday CP All's shares were suspended pending an announcement.

gmanetwork.com

Thai retailer CP All to open Siam Makro stores in China, ASEAN
(Reporting by Saranya Suksomkij and Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
Tue Apr 23, 2013

(Reuters) - Thailand's largest convenience store operator CP All Pcl aims to open Makro stores in China, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar as part of an Asian expansion after its acquisition of wholesaler Siam Makro Pcl .

"We are very keen on Siam Makro because the company will help us expand in the region," CP All's Chief Executive Korsak Chairasmisak told a news conference.

Laos and Vietnam are among the first countries outside Thailand where Siam Makro's branches will be opened, he said.

CP All, controlled by Thailand's richest man Dhanin Chearavanont, agreed to buy Siam Makro for $6.6 billion in the biggest Asia-Pacific M&A deal announced this year.

reuters.com

Amazing company growth considering CP was started by two immigrant Chinese brothers in the 1920's selling grains and seeds in a tiny shop in chinatown. Dhanin is one of their grandsons.

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Amazing company growth considering CP was started by two immigrant Chinese brothers in the 1920's selling grains and seeds in a tiny shop in chinatown. Dhanin is one of their grandsons.

Yeah they started off with SFA and look at the Company now ,as to how many tens of thousands people they employ (exploit to the liberal left) Just what the fuck is it with these people, any sort of success is frowned upon ,what we should have In Thailand is a good old fashioned revolution and Nationalize the greedy twats ,everything owned by the state ,I mean lets have it right, look how successful it was under Mao in China

Thailand Stock Exchange to Probe Siam Makro Trades
Suttinee Yuvejwattana
With assistance from Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok.
Editors: Matthew Oakley, Allen Wan
Apr 25, 2013

Thailand’s stock exchange will investigate trading that preceded the announcement of the nation’s largest takeover bid, the purchase of discount wholesaler Siam Makro Pcl (MAKRO) by 7-Eleven chain operator CP All Pcl. (CPALL)

Siam Makro’s shares rose 30 percent in the six trading sessions before CP All’s $6.6 billion bid was announced.

The stock jumped 15 percent on April 17, while the volume of shares traded rose to 1.6 million, almost four times the six-month average.

CP All, backed by Thai Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, offered to buy Siam Makro for 787 baht a share on April 23.

“It’s our job to investigate any irregularities,” Charamporn Jotikasthira, president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said in an interview today.

“We have seen it and begun the process to investigate that.”

Korsak Chairasmisak, chief executive officer of CP All, and Suchada Ithijarukul, CEO of Siam Makro, weren’t immediately available for comment after calls to their offices.

The deal would be the largest on record for a Thai company and the biggest takeover announced in Asia this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

CP All’s offer is 41 percent above Siam Makro’s average price in the prior 20 days, a record premium for a retail deal in emerging Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

CP All shares climbed 4.5 percent to 40.75 baht at the noon trading break in Bangkok, poised to snap a two-day slide.

Siam Makro declined 0.3 percent to 752 baht, heading for the first loss since April 9.

bloomberg.com

CC, A&O, Bakers score lead roles on $6.6bn Thai retail deal
Elizabeth Broomhall in Hong Kong
25 Apr 2013



Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy and Baker & McKenzie have landed leading roles on the Thai convenience store operator CP All's $6.6bn (£4.32bn) bid for a majority stake in national retailer Siam Makro.

CP All, Thailand's largest convenience chain and third-largest operator of 7-Eleven stores globally, owned by Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, is to buy the 64% majority stake in Siam Makro, the owner of Makro cash-and-carry stores in Thailand, from Dutch trading company Netherlands-based SHV Holdings.

The deal has been dubbed the largest Thai-targeted deal on record, and the biggest retail buy-out in the world for 2013.

US firm Baker & McKenzie is representing CP All, with a team led by Bangkok partners Thinawat Bukhaman, Professor Kitipong Urapeepatanapong, Theppachol Kosol and Chaveewan Likhitwattanachai in Bangkok.

They were supported by projects and finance partner James Huang in Singapore, and M&A partner Mike Jansen in Amsterdam.

Acting for SHV Holdings is UK magic circle firm Clifford Chance (CC), who fielded a team across Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Thailand led by M&A partner Andrew Matthews in Bangkok.

The lenders, which up to now include five banks: Siam Commercial Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS AG, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, were advised by Allen & Overy (A&O), with Hong Kong banking and finance partner Ian Powell heading the group.

Hunton & Williams provided counsel to the lenders on Thai aspects, led by partner Manida Zimmerman.

This will be the second multibillion-dollar transaction for CP All this year, following its $9.4bn (£6.15bn) purchase of HSBC's 15.6 per cent stake in one of China's largest insurance companies, Ping An Insurance in February.

It also tops the landmark $5.5bn (£3.6bn) purchase of PTT Aromatics & Refining by PTT Chemical in 2011, where Bakers also provided counsel to PTT Chemical.

legalweek.com

Thai 7-Eleven King Turns Retail Dream to Stock Nightmare
Angus Whitley & Anuchit Nguyen
Apr 25, 2013

Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont’s ambitions to create Southeast Asia’s largest retailer already wiped out $2.3 billion for CP All Pcl (CPALL) investors. Now, funding the industry’s most expensive bid may put more value at risk.

Dhanin’s CP All, which runs more than 6,800 7-Eleven stores in Thailand, slid 10 percent in Bangkok yesterday -- the most in more than four years -- after saying it will pay $6.6 billion for discount wholesaler Siam Makro Pcl. (MAKRO) The offer is 41 percent above Siam Makro’s average price in the prior 20 days, a record premium for a retail deal in emerging Asia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. CP All’s bid also represents the highest multiple to net income, the data show.


A customer exits a 7-Eleven convenience store, operated by CP All Pcl, in Bangkok.
Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg


Created in 1988, CP All opened Thailand’s first 7-Eleven store the following year. By 2009, the convenience store network was the third largest of its type in the world, behind the U.S. and Japan. Each day in Thailand, about 8.3 million people -- 12 percent of the population -- visit CP All’s 6,822 7-Eleven stores.
Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg


Siam Makro, based in Bangkok, runs 57 membership-based warehouse wholesale stores as well as five smaller frozen-food shops, according to its annual report.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg


“It may be expensive for other buyers, but it is not for CP All,” said Dhanin Chearavanont, billionaire and chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group Co. “Thailand’s economy is booming. Tourism is also booming. This will boost demand for food at restaurants that are customers of Siam Makro.”
Photographer: Dario Pignatelli/Bloomberg

While Dhanin plans to squeeze suppliers for better terms and export Siam Makro’s membership-warehouse model across Asia, the limited increase to profits isn’t enough to justify the price, said Credit Suisse Group AG. Although the Bangkok-based company says it has no plans to sell new stock to fund the deal, CP All’s share price will be weighed down by concerns that it will eventually have no other option, said UOB Kay Hian Securities (Thailand) Pcl.

“CP All is going to have to do a cash call,” Alan Richardson, a Hong Kong-based fund manager who helps oversee about $110 billion for Samsung Asset Management Co., including Siam Makro shares, said in a phone interview. “The valuation doesn’t make sense. With this kind of emerging market, the potential is definitely there, but for a stock investor who looks on a time horizon of one to two years, it would be negative.”

Booming Economy

“It may be expensive for other buyers, but it is not for CP All,” Dhanin, 74, said yesterday during a shareholder meeting for Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl (CPF), another company controlled by his Charoen Pokphand Group. “Thailand’s economy is booming. Tourism is also booming. This will boost demand for food at restaurants that are customers of Siam Makro.”
Dhanin later said that he doesn’t think CP All will have to sell shares to pay for the deal.

Created in 1988, CP All opened Thailand’s first 7-Eleven store the following year. By 2009, the convenience store network was the third largest of its type in the world, behind the U.S. and Japan. Each day in Thailand, about 8.3 million people -- 12 percent of the population -- visit CP All’s 6,822 7-Eleven stores, according to the company’s 2012 annual report.

‘Very Different’

Siam Makro, also based in Bangkok, runs 57 membership-based warehouse wholesale stores as well as five smaller frozen-food shops, according to its annual report.

Net income at Siam Makro, which counts grocery stores and small shops as well as hotels and restaurants among its customers, almost tripled to 3.56 billion baht ($123 million) in the five years through 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“The two are operating a very different business,” Best Waiyanont, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Bangkok, said by phone. “We don’t expect a lot of synergy from this acquisition.”

CP All plans to acquire Siam Makro in two stages, first buying 64 percent from Utrecht, Netherlands-based SHV Holdings NV, and then making a tender offer for the shares owned by other stockholders, it said on April 23. At 188.9 billion baht, or 787 baht a share, the offer is 41 percent more than the 20-day average of Siam Makro’s shares before the deal was announced.

Highest Premium

It’s a higher premium than in any retail transaction valued at more than $300 million in emerging Asia, data compiled by Bloomberg show. CP All’s offer is 53 times the target’s 2012 earnings, also the highest among those deals.

The purchase price equates to more than $100 million for each Siam Makro store, including its frozen food shops, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST), the largest membership-based wholesaler in the U.S., is valued at about $73 million per store. When Bangkok-based Big C Supercenter Pcl acquired Carrefour SA’s 42 stores in Thailand in 2011, it paid about $28 million for each outlet.

“I’m quite negative on this deal,” Padon Vannarat, an investment strategist at Bangkok-based Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pcl, said by phone. “Maybe they are looking for purchasing power, but it’s still expensive.”

After resuming trading yesterday, CP All shares fell 10 percent to 39 baht, the lowest level in five months. Including a 6 percent drop on April 22, when Bloomberg News reported the takeover plans, almost $2.3 billion has been wiped off of the retailer’s market value, which stood at about $12 billion yesterday.

Largest Retailer

Siam Makro yesterday rose 11 percent to 754 baht.

CP All and Siam Makro would have combined sales of $14 billion by the end of 2014, according to analysts’ estimates for each company compiled by Bloomberg. That will vault it past Singapore-based Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd., the operator of 7-Eleven stores in Singapore, to rank as Southeast Asia’s largest retailer.

Government policies to help Thailand’s low-income population, including higher minimum wages and price guarantees for farmers, have flowed down to the family-run grocery stores that Siam Makro serves.

The takeover would also give CP All a way to expand overseas faster than it can with the 7-Eleven brand, which is limited by franchise agreements, Dhanin said yesterday.

CP All still has grown profit more than sevenfold to 11 billion baht in the five years to 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Over the same period, the company’s return on equity jumped to 46 percent from 16 percent.

Returns Threatened

Buying Siam Makro will reduce the company’s return to 12 percent, Credit Suisse analysts in Hong Kong led by Karim P. Salamatian wrote in a note yesterday. Credit Suisse was one of at least four brokerages to cut its rating on CP All since the deal announcement.

“While the Makro asset is of high quality, the magnitude of deterioration in returns leads us to doubt whether this was the right price to pay,” Salamatian wrote.

To pay for the deal, CP All got a $6 billion bridge loan that will need to be refinanced within a year through syndicated finance, bonds and possibly equity, people with knowledge of the matter said this week.

Unless CP All -- previously debt-free -- raises fresh capital, the company’s annual interest expense may exceed 8 billion baht next year, Chalinee Congmuang, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in Bangkok, wrote in a note yesterday.

Financing Need

Siam Makro’s earnings may help limit the debt burden, said Andrew Yates, Bangkok-based head of international equity sales for Asia Plus Securities Pcl. Analysts expect CP All’s net income will rise 47 percent by the end of next year, while Siam Makro’s profit will gain 41 percent, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

“In this booming Thai economy, the right strategy should be to expand with increased debt,” Yates wrote in an e-mail yesterday. “Makro is a profitable business and its cash flow more than offsets the debt charges.”

Still, given the size of its borrowings, CP All will have to sell shares to refinance the debt and reduce its costs, Thananchai Jittanoon, an analyst at UOB Kay Hian in Bangkok, said in a report yesterday.

The price “is hefty and hardly justifies such investment, and is expected to weigh down on CP All’s earnings and profitability,” Jittanoon wrote in the report.

bloomberg.com

^

Originally Posted by piwanoi

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Amazing company growth considering CP was started by two immigrant Chinese brothers in the 1920's selling grains and seeds in a tiny shop in chinatown. Dhanin is one of their grandsons.

Yeah they started off with SFA and look at the Company now ,as to how many tens of thousands people they employ (exploit to the liberal left) Just what the fuck is it with these people, any sort of success is frowned upon ,what we should have In Thailand is a good old fashioned revolution and Nationalize the greedy twats ,everything owned by the state ,I mean lets have it right, look how successful it was under Mao in China

see above post

^ Yeah , What a tangled web they weave .

Dhanin is rich as fuck, universally admired for his success story, but still feels the need to dye his hair, what is is with Chinese and hair dye? is it Chinese Viagra i thought they had endangered species like rhino horn for that.

CP All Shareholders Approve 189 Billion Baht Siam Makro Deal (1)
Anuchit Nguyen
June 12, 2013

CP All Pcl (CPALL) shareholders approved the Thai retailer’s 189 billion baht ($6.1 billion) acquisition of Siam Makro Pcl (MAKRO), the country’s biggest ever takeover.

About 87 percent of shareholders who attended today’s meeting in Bangkok voted for the proposal, more than the 75 percent required, said Supot Shitgasornpongse, the company’s secretary. CP All, controlled by billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont’s Charoen Pokphand Group, offered 787 baht a share for Siam Makro, the Bangkok-based retailer said on April 24.

Dhanin is trying to reassemble his retail empire after earlier selling control of the membership-warehouse chain he founded. He’s offering about 53 times Siam Makro’s earnings last year, more than double the average for 20 retailer takeovers in emerging Asia announced over the last five years, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“CP All would significantly strengthen its domination in Thailand’s commerce industry by expanding into the cash-and-carry business,” said Jintana Mekintharanggur, who helps oversee about $200 million as director of equities investment at Manulife Asset Management Co. Synergies may provide a “justification for paying that expensive price,” she said.

Dhanin is buying companies at home and abroad, accounting for more than half of the record $31 billion in total deals announced this year in Thailand, including CP Group’s purchase of a $9.4 billion stake in China’s Ping An Insurance (Group) Co.

Biggest Acquisition

Dhanin has a net worth of $6.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Many of his assets are owned through closely-held holding companies that he shares with his three brothers. Dhanin’s net worth calculation excludes the stakes held by his brothers, Jaran Chiaravanont, Montri Jiaravanont and Sumet Jiaravanon.

The Siam Makro purchase is the largest on record for Thai companies. CP All had cash and cash equivalents of 35 billion baht with no debt as of March 31, according to the company’s financial statements.

“In the short term, Siam Makro’s earnings contribution wouldn’t be sufficient to cover funding costs,” Chaiyatorn Sricharoen, an analyst at Bualuang Securities Pcl, said in a note yesterday. Still, CP All will gain long-term benefits including added bargaining power with suppliers and pooling purchases of raw materials, he said.

CP All and Siam Makro management will meet next month “to discuss how we can implement the synergy, such as in material purchases,” Chief Executive Officer Korsak Chairasmisak told reporters after today’s meeting. “Siam Makro’s main overseas expansion will be in neighboring countries of Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.”

Asian Crisis

The acquisition of Siam Makro tops the $5.5 billion purchase of PTT Aromatics & Refining Pcl by PTT Chemical Pcl in 2011 to become the largest on record in Thailand, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Dhanin and SHV founded Siam Makro in 1988, according to the company’s website. CP All agreed to buy SHV’s 64 percent stake for 787 baht a share and will make a tender offer to other shareholders at the same price, it said.

Charoen Pokphand was once Siam Makro’s largest shareholder with a stake of as much as 47 percent in 1997, the same year that the devaluation of Thailand’s baht triggered a financial crisis that pushed many Asian economies into recession.

After the crisis, Dhanin sold stakes in companies including Siam Makro and Lotus Supercenter, which was bought by Tesco. In May 2005, a Charoen Pokphand unit sold 7 percent of Siam Makro back to the company that controlled the retailer for 60 baht per share.

Siam Commercial Bank Pcl (SCB) is advising CP All on the acquisition and HSBC Holdings Plc is advising SHV Holdings NV, Siam Makro’s biggest shareholder.

businessweek.com

CHINA: CP Lotus Cancels Wumart Supermarket Deal

Thai giant CP Group has announced the collapse of the planned sale of its 36 supermarkets in China to Wumart. The two sides said they were unable to agree terms on a deal, and neither side said there were any plans to revive the deal.

The $300m all-share deal, first made public in October, also included both companies taking stakes in each other, to boost their expansion across Asia. It would have given Wumart a key presence in northern China, adding to its 500+ outlets in the rest of the country.

The collapse is the latest piece of disappointing news for the Chinese retail industry, which has seen several major global chains either shut down, sell out, or scale down their local operations. The Thai group’s CP Lotus chain has been reporting losses for several years, and has lowered its store numbers from 75 to 55.

kamcity.com

Originally Posted by Mid

The collapse is the latest piece of disappointing news for the Chinese retail industry, which has seen several major global chains either shut down, sell out, or scale down their local operations. The Thai group’s CP Lotus chain has been reporting losses for several years, and has lowered its store numbers from 75 to 55.

Probably because even the Chinese have figured out they are shit. Food is sub par, and the products are Chinese anyway.