GROCERY giant Tesco has unveiled a £1 billion agreement to beef up its hypermarket presence in South Korea.
In the largest deal the retailer has done, it bought 36 Homever hypermarkets for £958 million, increasing its number of outlets in the country by a quarter.
The move will result in Tesco, which operates in South Korea as Samsung Tesco, rebranding
most of the stores to its Homeplus format over the next 12 months.
Most of the stores acquired were formerly operated as Carrefour premises.
Tesco has been operating in South Korea since 1999. As well as the stores it has just bought, it has 66 Homeplus hypermarkets and 72 Homeplus Express stores in the country, employing nearly 13,000 people. Sales in the year to February 2008 were £2.7bn.
Twenty of the new hypermarkets are in the greater Seoul and Gyeonggi metropolitan area, which has a population of around 11 million people.
Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said: "After nine years of successful development in South Korea, Samsung Tesco is now a substantial business and our leading international operation.
"This acquisition of high-quality assets is an important strategic move, which will allow us to accelerate our growth in this key market and deliver a much stronger offer for customers.
"It also demonstrates our continued commitment to invest into South Korea."
The full article contains 229 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
