Wal-Mart expands in Brazil
Wal-Mart, which already has a significant presence in Brazil, extended it with the purchase of the Brazilian supermarkets and hypermarkets of Portuguese firm Sonae. The deal, which involves 140 stores, is priced at around $760 million. The markets will continue to sell under their old names, including Hipermercado Big and Nacional.
Wal-Mart in 2004 bought the Bompreco market chain (118 stores) from Dutch supermarket company Ahold. http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2004/03/04.html
The new buy should propel #3 Wal-Mart into a stronger position in Brazil against #2 French-based Carrefour (390 stores) and #1 CBD (540 stores), All three plan major expansions.
Wal-Mart is unlikely to pause in Brazil. A BusinessWeek article ("Wal-Mart buys Brazilian stores for expansion", 12/14/05)) quotes one analyst as saying:
"I don't think Wal-Mart's appetite will stop here. The company's focus is to be the top player or second in markets where they operate,"
As we've pointed out before, Wal-Mart keeps extending its reach worldwide. http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2004/05/25.html
Carrefour recently left markets in Mexico and Japan, where it deemed it couldn't compete. Those are two markets where Wal-Mart keeps growing. In fact, international growth is over twice as fast for Wal-Mart than domestic growth.
Wal-Mart currently operates 5,400 stores, and plans to open 370 in the US and 250 abroad in 2006. It has pans to acquire majority share of Central American supermarket chain Carcho, which is now operated by Ahold (again) and two local investors. The company bought a 33% stake a few months ago. In Japan, Wal-Mart is about to take over Japanese retailer Seiyu. Seiyu has over 400 stores, including supermarkets and department stores. In England, the Wal-Mart owned Asda chain (#2) is slipping, but plans to open a chain of convenience stores in addition to its supermarkets. The company is losing ground to #1 Tesco in a price war.
5:46:04 PM 
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