Aeon to invest $ 530mln in Daiei, Maruetsu: Nikkei

Tokyo, Mar 9: Aeon Co, Japan's second-biggest retailer, will spend 62 billion yen (9 million) to buy a 15 percent stake in supermarket chain Daiei Inc and 20 percent of Daiei's grocery subsidiary Maruetsu Inc, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

That would be some 55 percent more than the current prices for the stakes which total about 40 billion yen.

Aeon, Daiei and trading house Marubeni Corp., which is Daiei's top shareholder, will jointly hold a briefing on capital tie-ups at 4:30 p.m. (0730 GMT).

Newspapers reported earlier that Aeon and Marubeni would also hold stakes of about 1 percent in each other to cement their relationship.

A tie-up between Aeon and Daiei would create Japan's largest retail group with total sales of more than 6 trillion yen, surpassing those of Seven&I Holdings With its size, the group would have strong procurement power and cost competitiveness. The move would also likely trigger further consolidation among retailers and suppliers, where too many players are competing in a saturated market.

Under the agreement, Aeon and Daiei would link up in purchases of food and apparel, while Aeon would share its distribution centres and systems with Daiei, the paper said. They will also cooperate in product development, it said.

After the deal, Aeon would be second-biggest shareholder in both Daiei and Maruetsu.

Last October, Aeon won exclusive rights to discuss buying the stakes in Daiei and Maruetsu by the end of March. The race also attracted Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is trying to expand in Japan through subsidiary Seiyu Ltd.

Shares in Aeon rose 4.6 percent to close at 2,400 yen while Daiei jumped 9.8 percent to 1,689 yen. Maruetsu rose 3.2 percent to 573 yen. The benchmark Nikkei average rose 0.43 percent.

Reuters

>