Retail giant Aeon Co. said Thursday it has bought the Malaysian operations of France’s Carrefour SA, becoming the second-biggest industry player in the Southeast Asian nation.
Aeon said it spent €147 million (¥15.24 billion) to buy Carrefour’s Malaysian hypermarket unit, Magnificient Diagraph, and a related entity. Carrefour put the total enterprise value of the operations at €250 million (¥25.95 billion).
The acquisition will boost Aeon’s annual retail sales in Malaysia to around ¥120 billion, raising the group to the second slot from third in the Malaysian distribution industry.
The move is part of Aeon’s efforts to speed up expansion into other Asian markets amid ever-increasing competition in Japan, officials said.
The firm made a foray into Malaysia in 1984 and now operates 29 supermarkets. Aeon hopes to increase the number of outlets to 100 by 2020, the firm said, stressing that it wants to become the favorite supermarket of Malaysian shoppers.