Carrefour's operational focus narrows again as it announces its exit from Malaysia. The France-based retailer yesterday (31 Oct) finalised the sale of its Malaysian operations to Japanese retail group Aeon.
The €250 million deal will see Aeon take on Carrefour's 26 stores in Malaysia, which racked up sales of €400 million, for the year ending 30 June 2012.
The announcement comes on the back of Carrefour's divestment of its Colombian operations. It is planned that the world's second-largest retailer will finalise the sale of its Singaporean assets in the coming weeks.
"The transaction is part of Carrefour's strategy of refocusing on its core activities and allocating its resources to mature countries where it occupies strong and established positions and emerging markets where it has strong growth potential," the company said in a statement.
Aeon's purchase is part of the group's strategic plan for growth outside Japan. It aims to boost stores numbers in the country to 100 outlets by 2020 and has plans for further expansion in southeast Asia, saying the region was “one of the very few areas where we can expect to see greater development as far as potential economic growth is concerned”. Malaysia will become the group’s southeast Asian headquarters. (1 Oct)
© 2012 - ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
