E-Mart to restart talks on sale of stores in China

By Kim Young-gyo
HONG KONG, June 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's leading discount store chain E-Mart will renew talks on the sale of some of its stores in China as part of a move to restructure its Chinese business, company officials said Friday.
E-Mart, an affiliate of South Korea's second-largest retailer Shinsegae Co., opened its first Chinese outlet in February 1997 and now has 27 stores mostly in the northeastern region of China.
The discount retailer is preparing to start new talks with a Chinese firm to sell its stores in China, including those in Beijing and Shanghai, an E-Mart official said.
"However, the number of stores to be sold or even the buyer of the stores is not fixed at the moment," the official said, declining to be named.
Recent talks to sell about 10 E-Mart stores in China to a local company broke off, he added.
E-Mart said in a statement that 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.
By 2015, E-Mart aims to increase the number of its stores in China to 45, following the restructuring of stores that have been making losses.
Last year, the company registered a net loss of 75 billion won (US$68.6 million) from its China business.
Meanwhile, smaller homegrown rival Lotte Mart has operated 81 stores in China since 2007. In 2010, the company recorded a smaller net loss of 15 billion won in China.
Some market watchers predict that China will surpass the United States as the largest consumer market by 2020 with retail sales expected to reach $2.4 trillion.
ygkim@yna.co.kr