Wal -Mart Stores will pay about $1 billion to take over a Chinese chain to challenge Carrefour as the largest operator of super-centres in booming China.
The acquisition of Bounteous by Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, will be done in phases by 2010 and could trigger much-needed consolidation in China's ferociously competitive $1 trillion retail market.
Under terms of the deal, Wal-Mart is buying 35 per cent of Taiwan-based Bounteous, which operates 101 hypermarkets in 34 Chinese cities under the Trust-Mart brand, and will acquire ownership control of the chain by 2010 if conditions are met.
Terms were not disclosed, but a source said Wal -Mart will pay $1 billion for all of Bounteous.
Wal -Mart already operates 73 stores in China and employs more than 37,000 people there.
France-based Carrefour, the world's second-ranked retailer and the largest foreign operator in China, added 20 China stores last year to bring its total in the country to 90 by the year-end.