TESCO SAYS it will sell a 50 per cent share in its Japanese unit to Aeon and invest $40 million in the business to end a nine-year foray into the Asian nation.
Aeon, Japan’s biggest retailer, will pay a “nominal sum” for joint control of Tesco Japan in a deal that the British company said will leave it with no further financial exposure to the country.
Tesco’s investment will help fund restructuring and is the second part of a process that will lead to its exit of the country, it said yesterday.
“Without some serious MA, they were never going to reach the scale required to create a profitable business in what remains one of the most competitive markets on earth,” said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at Kantar Retail. “It makes sense to pull out and this seems a dignified way of doing it.”
Global retailers are jettisoning peripheral assets as a slump in consumer spending linked to the debt-crisis leads them to focus on their main regions.
Carrefour last week agreed to sell its stake in a Greek joint venture and new chief executive Georges Plassat said yesterday it may exit Turkey and cede control in Indonesia. – (Bloomberg)
