South Korean Lotte Group is bidding for the privately owned domestic convenience store chain Buy The Way, the Money Today newspaper reported here (Korean).
The news report cited Lotte CEO Lee In-won as saying that his company have sent a proposal to Unitas Capital, offering a ‘reasonable’ price for Buy The Way.
The report added that Family Mart, another convenience store chain that had been linked to the sale, consider the estimated KRW 250 billion (US$ 223 million) price tag too high, preferring to continue working on their own expansion strategy.
Unitas Capital acquired Buy the Way from Orion Group back in 2006 for US$200 million.
The Reuters article ‘Ministop, Lotte, Carlyle bidding for Buy The Way‘ reported last week, that -
Along with Lotte Group, Japanese retailer Ministop and U.S. PE firm Carlyle Group will also make final bids for Buy The Way, as they try and capititalize on South Korea’s rapidly growing convenience store market, which expanded 17 percent to KRW 6.5 trillion in 2008.
If Lotte Group, who currently run two thousand 7-Eleven stores under a licence agreement, gains Buy The Way’s 1,400 stores they would go along way to closing the gap with market leader Family Mart.
(Sources: Reuters, Money Today)
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