Uni-President Group’s (統一集團) acquisition of Carrefour Taiwan (家樂福) is not likely to hurt consumers, but rather result in lower prices driven by more competition among major Taiwanese supermarket chains, marketing experts said yesterday.
Uni-President on Tuesday said it had reached an agreement to acquire 60 percent of Carrefour Taiwan for NT$29 billion (US$970.22 million).
Added to the 40 percent stake it already owned, the hypermarket chain now has complete ownership of Carrefour Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
The deal has sparked concern that it would give Uni-President and its main competitor, PX Mart Co (全聯實業), greater leverage to raise prices of daily necessities.
Such increases are unlikely, as neither Uni-President nor PX Mart monopolize the Taiwanese grocery market, said Wu Shih-hao (吳師豪), a professor in the Department of Marketing and Distribution at National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology.
Consumers are sensitive to price increases, so “if Uni-President wanted to hike prices, people would simply shop at PX Mart or Costco instead,” Wu said.
Uni-President is likely to offer more discounts amid fiercer price competition, although that could result in smaller margins for Carrefour Taiwan’s upstream suppliers, he said.
Loyal Carrefour customers should not worry about any radical change in the Carrefour brand, Wu said.
Citing US and Japanese studies, Wu said that most shoppers tend to choose a supermarket chain for the product brands they carry.
Therefore, Uni-President is unlikely to stop supplying the French brands commonly found at Carrefour, Wu said.
With the acquisition of Carrefour Taiwan, Uni-President is expected to cement its lead in the country’s retail industry.
Li Shyh-jane (李世珍), deputy director-general of the Commerce Development Research Institute’s Business Model Innovation Research Division, expressed similar views, saying that with the acquisition, such companies are likely to offer more discounts and deals.
“A head-to-head competition between Uni-President and PX Mart is a good thing, from a consumer’s point of view,” he said.
Separately, Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) on Wednesday said that Uni-President has strong cash flow and a high cash balance to fund the acquisition of Carrefour Taiwan.
“The increased retail network penetration and diversification achieved through the acquisition will shore up Uni-President Group’s profitability,” Taiwan Ratings said.
The transaction would not impair Uni-President’s financial strength, and the company is likely to maintain its operating performance over the next one to two years, judging by its business diversity and improved profitability from its operations in China, Taiwan Ratings said.
Additional reporting by Crystal Hsu
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS