Attachment brand apparel 3 billion acquisition of Carrefour Korea business

In the 1980s, E-Land, who started in the apparel industry, agreed to buy Carrefour's business in South Korea for approximately US$1.9 billion (approximately SGD 3,040 million).

With this acquisition, attachment will become South Korea's fourth-largest discount chain store. The number of stores in South Korea will increase from 18 to 50, and the market share will also increase from 3% to 10%.

Attachment is a financial consortium with financial institutions Woori and National Bank to bid for the acquisition of the Korean subsidiary of Carrefour.

According to the attached annual report, Singapore Government Investment Corporation invested 500 billion won (S$828 million) in the company in 2004.

Carrefour is the second largest retailer in the world. Due to its inferior performance in South Korea, Carrefour decided to transfer resources to China’s $240 billion retail market and sell 32 branches and 8 strongholds in South Korea.

Carrefour has invested about US$1.1 billion in South Korea since 1996, but it has fallen behind Shinsegae, Samsung Tesco and Lotte in sales. According to Credit Suisse, Carrefour’s fourth-ranked operating profit margin is only about 2%, which is far less than 8% of New World and 5% of Samsung Tesco.

When Carrefour entered the Chinese mainland market in 1995, it adopted a completely different strategy. It combined investors including Taiwan and quickly grasped local preferences and pushed down Wal-Mart. It has 73 large supermarkets in China and is currently the largest foreign retailer in China. It plans to add another 20 supermarkets this year.