Far Eastern Department Stores Co (遠東百貨), the retail and department store arm of the Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), aims to expand by opening three new locations in Taiwan in five years in a bid to benefit from recovering private consumption.
The new developments include the second phase of Mega City (板橋大遠百), the A13 parcel of land in Taipei City’s Xinyi District (信義) and a mall in Greater Kaohsiung.
The three new stores could help boost the department store operator’s total floor area in Taiwan by 45,000 ping (148,760m2), or 20 percent, according to company data.
Group chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) expects Far Eastern Retail Group (遠東零售集團) to focus on increasing its e-commerce business this year by integrating physical stores with virtual channels.
“The department store and retail sectors in Taiwan are continuing to transform, with a significant part of them expected to develop into virtual channels” Hsu said in Far Eastern’s annual shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
As well as Far Eastern Department Stores, the company is in charge of the hypermart brand A.mart Co. (愛買量販店) and is a main investor in Pacific Sogo Department Stores (太平洋崇光百貨).
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$1.15 per share and a stock dividend of NT$0.2 per share, based on the net income of NT$2.17 billion (US$72.18 million), or NT$1.54 per share, it posted last year.
The company’s shares dropped 1.24 percent to close at NT$27.95 on the local bourse yesterday, according to its stock exchange filing data.
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