Wednesday, October 18,2006

BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is working out the details on a 1-billion-U.S.-dollar purchase of 100 Chinese supercenters owned by Trust-Mart, a closely held Taiwanese company, according to a Wall Street Journal online report Monday.

International expansion has become increasingly important for Wal-Mart as its U.S. sales growth slows. Its U.S. discount stores posted 7.9 percent sales growth for September, while the international business turned in a strong 32 percent gain.

Wal-Mart’s international operations have endured some high-profile setbacks this year, however, as the retailer pulled out of South Korea and Germany.

If approved by Chinese regulators, Wal-Mart would surpass Carrefour SA for the most supercenters in China. Supercenters, also known as hypermarkets, are giant stores that sell a wide range of general food and merchandise.

Wal-Mart beat Carrefour out in bidding for the Trust-Mart stores, the Wall Street Journal said.

Trust-Mart posted 2005 sales of about 1.42 billion dollars at its Chinese hypermarkets, according to Euromonitor data, well above Wal-Mart's 764 million dollars in its Chinese stores. By comparison, Carrefour had 2005 sales of 2.17 billion dollars at its Chinese hypermarkets.

Wal-Mart has said that its operations there could be as big as its U.S. business in 20 years. Wal-Mart currently has more than 3,700 U.S. stores, but only about 60 in China.

In March, the retailer said it planned to hire some 150,000 people in China over the next five years — five times the number it currently employs — as it prepares for a major store expansion.

(source: Xinhuanet)