UK supermarket group Tesco has announced that Samsung Tesco HomePlus, its South Korean joint venture with Samsung Corporation, is to acquire twelve stores from Aram Mart, which operates in and around Pusan, southwest Korea.
Tesco did not reveal financial terms of the deal, but said that Samsung Tesco will acquire three compact hypermarkets and nine supermarkets as part of the deal.
Last October Tesco said it had agreed with Samsung to extend the Homeplus joint venture in South Korea until at least 2011. As part of the agreement, Tesco will buy a further 10% of Homeplus shares from Samsung Corporation over the next seven years, taking its interest to 99%.
The joint venture was created in May 1999, when Tesco purchased a controlling 51% interest in Homeplus from Samsung. Tesco increased its interest in Homeplus to 81% in June 1999 and to 89% in February 2002.
