Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which has acquired a stake in Japanese retailer Seiyu Ltd, may form alliances with other store chains to expand in the world's second- biggest retail market, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.
The reported move would be a departure from the three-way alliance Wal-Mart, Sumitomo Corp and Japan's fifth-largest retailer agreed to in March. In that arrangement, Seiyu was to become the nucleus of Wal-Mart's entry into Japan. Sumitomo is Seiyu's biggest shareholder.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, completed its purchase of 6.1 percent of Seiyu for Japanese yen 6 billion (US$48 million) last month, culminating five years of study of the Japanese market.
Wal-Mart may be concluding that Seiyu alone won't be a sufficient vehicle for growth in Japan, an investor said.
"Seiyu is too small," said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp in Tokyo, which manages US$600 million including retail stocks. "You need volume to really have a viable business."
Wal-Mart and Sumitomo will undertake a separate study of Japan's retail market without Seiyu's participation by year's end, the Yomiuri said, citing unnamed people at Sumitomo.
"This is a total surprise to us," said Seiyu spokesman Satoshi Suzuki.
"Nothing has changed in our schedule, which is to decide by the end of this year which kind of stores Wal-Mart and Seiyu will open."
Sumitomo issued a statement saying it had no plans to study the retail market without Seiyu's involvement. "Our company will proceed our tie-up plans with Wal-Mart and Seiyu, and there's no strategy change at all," Sumitomo said.
Wal-Mart officials weren't immediately available for comment.
The reported move may jeopardize Wal-Mart's relationship with Seiyu, an analyst said. "For now, Wal-Mart wants to respect Seiyu's wishes, so I think such a move is unlikely," said Mizuho Securities analyst Toshio Takahashi.
"Economically, however it makes sense for Japan's retailers to be consolidated," Additional alliances by Wal-Mart would threaten local store operators, said Shigeki Ubukata, who manages Japanese yen 20 billion at Sumisei Global Investment Trust Management Co.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS