US retail giant Wal-Mart is to make Japanese subsidiary Seiyu a wholly-owned unit, reports suggested today (18 March), as the company seeks to turn around the long-unprofitable supermarket chain.
The move has reportedly received approval at Seiyu's shareholder meeting, enabling Wal-Mart to buy the remaining stake, boosting its share from 96% to 100%.
Since Wal-Mart first invested in Seiyu in 2002, Japan's fifth-biggest retailer by sales has struggled in the competitive Japanese market, not making a net profit on an annual basis since then.
In February, Seiyu posted a net loss of Y20.9bn (US$193.7bn) due to a series of asset write-downs.
Seiyu said it had missed its sales and earnings targets after seeing operating profit tumble 87% to JPY434m and sales dip 0.9% to JPY952.3m.
The retailer said its food sales were "comparatively steady" last year, although general merchandise sales had slowed.
Wal-Mart moved to take total control of Seiyu mid-way through last year amid concerns over the company's performance.
Sectors: Retail
Companies: Wal-Mart
View next/previous articles
18 Mar 2008 -
18 Mar 2008 -
Currently reading -
JAPAN: Wal-Mart buys remaining Seiyu shares
18 Mar 2008 -
18 Mar 2008 -
Related research
Premium Company Profile: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Wal-Mart's Stores' strategy involves channelising its financial and human resources in key geographical areas that are likely to yield maximum returns for investment for example, Canada, Mexico and Japan....
Wal-Mart Stores Inc - Retailing – World
Euromonitor International's Wal-Mart Stores Inc Company Profile offers detailed strategic analysis of the company’s business, examining its performance in the retailing market. The report provides a strategic evaluation of the company, examines compa...
Keeping Up With Wal-Mart: Mass Grocery Retail In The Americas Region
BMI’s Industry Special Reports allow you to identify and evaluate the scale of growth opportunities across global markets, to benchmark competitors and peers in each market using recently researched company profiles, and to benchmark your own views a...
There are currently no comments on this article
Be the first to comment on this article