US-based Costco Wholesale Corp on Thursday said that it had purchased the remaining 45 percent stake in Costco President Taiwan Inc (台灣好市多) for US$1.05 billion, making the local company a fully-owned unit.
“We estimate that the purchase would add about 1 to 1.5 percent to [our] earnings per share,” Costco said in a statement.
Costco President Taiwan was established as a joint venture with Kaohsiung-based President Group (大統集團), which held a 45 percent stake.
Photo: Reuters
Since the first Costco store opened in Kaohsiung in 1997, 14 outlets have been set up in Taiwan, company data showed.
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Three Costco stores in Taiwan — in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) and one in Taichung — were among the top 10 most profitable Costco outlets worldwide, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported.
Costco Wholesale operates 833 warehouses worldwide: 574 in the US States and Puerto Rico, 107 in Canada, 40 in Mexico, 31 in Japan, 29 in the UK, 16 in South Korea, 14 in Taiwan, 13 in Australia, four in Spain, two each in France and China, and one in Iceland, it said in the statement.
Costco Wholesale also operates e-commerce sites in Taiwan, the US, Canada, the UK, Mexico, South Korea, Japan and Australia, it added.
With PX Mart Co (全聯實業) having acquired RT-Mart International Ltd (大潤發) and Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福) reportedly seeking a local buyer, that could leave Costco as the only foreign hypermarket chain operator in the nation.
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