Tesco dips into water in China
Tesco, the UK supermarkets group, is to enter China's fast-growing but increasingly competitive retail market with the ?40m purchase of a 50 per cent stake in a Taiwanese-owned hypermarket chain.
The deal with Ting Hsin, one of the region's largest food groups, will enable the UK group to join international rivals such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour and a number of Asian companies in gaining a foothold in China.
The move to buy half of the Hymall chain from Ting Hsin is part of Tesco's expansion into the emerging markets of Asia and eastern Europe.
Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco chief executive, said yesterday that expanding into China was an important strategic step to becoming a "truly international retailer". About ?.8bn of its total ?4bn sales come from its 179 stores in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia. but China was becoming "the economic driver" of the region.
The price offered by Tesco, which values the 25-superstore group at more than 50-times last year's earnings, underlines the high valuations investors are prepared to pay to buy into China.
"It is a market we have researched extensively over the last three years," said Sir Terry. It was essential to find the right partner that had already shown it could grow quickly in what can be a "difficult market", he said.
Ting Hsin, which opened its first Hymall store six years ago, "is already profitable and has shown that it can grow from scratch", he said.
The companies will have equal representation on the board, with Tesco poised to name the venture's president and Ting Hsin to retain the chairman and chief executive post.
Hymall's superstores had sales last year of ?30m and an after-tax profit of ?.5m. The group plans to open 10 more outlets this year, which should help to increase sales to an estimated ?50m this year, according to Tesco.
Hymall's superstores are mainly in the east, north and north-east of China and serve about 2m customers a week.
英国特易购试水中国超市
英国超市集团特易购(Tesco)即将进入快速增长但竞争日趋激烈的中国零售市场。公司斥资1.4亿英镑，收购中国大陆一家连锁超市50%的股权。该超市为台湾顶新集团(Ting Hsin)拥有。
特易购与顶新的交易，将使它在立足中国大陆市场方面，与其跨国对手竞争对手沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)、家乐福(Carrefour)以及多家亚洲公司并驾齐驱。顶新是本地区最大的食品集团之一。
特易购将迈入顶新旗下乐购(Hymall)连锁超市的半数股权，这一收购是特易购向亚洲和东欧新兴市场扩张行动中的一部分。
特易购首席执行官特里?莱希(Terry Leahy)爵士昨天表示，进军中国是该集团成为一家“真正国际性零售商”的重要战略步骤。目前在特易购340亿英镑的总销售额中，有大约28亿英镑来自日本、韩国、泰国、台湾地区和马来西亚的179家店，但中国大陆正在成为该地区的“经济推动力”。
乐购拥有25家超市，而特易购的报价则是乐购去年利润的50多倍。这一报价突出表明，投资者准备为进入中国付出高价。
特里爵士说：“过去三年，我们广泛调查这个市场。” 他接着表示，中国市场可能是个“很难打开的市场”，找到正确的合作伙伴至关重要，这个伙伴需要表明它能在中国市场迅速取得增长。
顶新集团6年前开设第一家乐购超市，现在“已经赢利，并表明它能够白手起家取得增长，” 特里爵士说。
两家公司在董事会将拥有同样的地位，特易购将派人出任公司总裁，顶新将保留董事长和首席执行官职位。
据特易购的数据，去年乐购超市的销售收入为3.3亿英镑，税后利润550万英镑。公司计划今年开设10家以上的新店，这应能帮助提高销售收入，预计今年可升至4.5亿英镑。
乐购的超市主要位于中国华东、华北和东北地区，每周接待大约200万名顾客。
