Wal-Mart Wants to Eat Zombie, Zombie Runs For It

[Taro Toporific]

Japan's Seiyu to become Wal-Mart unit in Jan.-CEO
TOKYO, Aug 26 (Reuters)- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , the world's largest retailer, will likely raise its stake in affiliate Seiyu Ltd. to make it a subsidiary in January, the Nikkei Financial Daily on Friday quoted Seiyu CEO Noriyuki Watanabe as saying.......more....

[homesweethome]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=ah4GvCzFSDQ0&refer=japan

CapitaLand May Tie Up With Wal-Mart, Other Retailer in Japan
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- CapitaLand Ltd., Southeast Asia's largest property developer, may tie up with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. or another retailer in Japan to speed up expansion of its business in the country, said Liew Mun Leong, chief executive of CapitaLand.

It has also started a US$300 million residential fund in Japan with Bahrain's Arcapita Bank BSC that aims to tap a growing overseas market for Islamic banking. - Bloomberg

Here is CL's tear sheet.
http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/ForeignCompanyTearsheet.jhtml?cusip=6309303
I wonder if we'll see headlines:
Wallmart's Islamic Money Connection? or Wallmart Accepts Terrorist Funds For Overseas Expansion
I am sure Mulboyne will be all over this anyway.

[Taro Toporific]

Wal-Mart still suffering growing pains in Japan
FT.com / Home UK -September 19 2005 03:00
....In the US, Wal-Mart has been able to raise its margins and still under-price the competition by continually pushing down the cost of goods sold. The retailer's logistics have played a large part in helping the retailer reduce its supply chain complexity. In Japan, however, the multi-tiered distribution system, coupled with the vast product assortment that finicky Japanese consumers demand, has made it difficult for the retailer to simplify its supply chain and cut costs.
Though Wal-Mart has introduced many of its globally-sourced products into the Japanese market, such as portable CD players and bananas, it obviously has no buyer's advantage when it comes to sashimi, tofu and shiitake mushrooms....more...

[homesweethome]

When I saw this article I thought:

Gosh WallMart, you have been here three years already and you haven't bought the country yet?

What is wrong with you?

It only took me six months.

[emperor]

Attack of the Zombie Kittens (flash game)

[Taro Toporific]

When I saw this article I thought:
Gosh WallMart, you have been here three years already and you haven't bought the country yet?

Wal-Mart to buy Tommy Hilfiger ---the street cred of both companies drop 1000% in one day!

Analysts Cool To Talk Of Tommy Hilfiger Bid By Wal-mart Business Online, UK - 27 Sept
LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones) -- Shares of Tommy Hilfiger Corp. got a temporary boost on Monday following a published report that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ...more...

[nullpointer]

Wal-Mart to buy Tommy Hilfiger ---the street cred of both companies drop 1000% in one day!

They have cred?

[Taro Toporific]

Gosh WallMart, you have been here three years already and you haven't bought the country yet?
What is wrong with you?

Wal-Mart's Japan unit sees 5th year of loss in '06
TOKYO, Feb 17 (Reuters)- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) struggling Japanese subsidiary, Seiyu Ltd. (8268.T: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Friday it expects to be in the red for a fifth straight year in 2006....more...

[homesweethome]

Wal-Mart's Japan unit sees 5th year of loss in '06
TOKYO, Feb 17 (Reuters)- Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) struggling Japanese subsidiary, Seiyu Ltd. (8268.T: Quote, Profile, Research), said on Friday it expects to be in the red for a fifth straight year in 2006....more...

Of course it does.
What else can it be, except in the red, when it is buying the country.

[Taro Toporific]

FG member GenKanaijust posted the following on his blog:

[SIZE="5"]Wal-Mart leaves S. Korea[/SIZE]
I'm interested in Wal-Mart's failure in S. Korea because it's an interesting case of both a business which did not respect local markets and a market where local competition is very strong.
Carrefour left Japan a few years ago and Nokia has no presence in Japan either. Wal-Mart in Japan is struggling with their Seiyu brand....
Wal-Mart Selling Stores and Leaving South Korea - New York Times....

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo: Law revised to ban large suburban malls in Japan

Japan on Wednesday revised the City Planning Law to ban new large shopping malls and amusement facilities in suburban areas in principle to prevent urban centers from being hollowed out. The revised City Planning Law, which passed the House of Councillors after its earlier approval at the House of Representatives, will be enforced in 18 months to limit locations of new shopping malls to urban centers. If a shopping mall with a total floor space exceeding 10,000 square meters were to be built outside an urban center, the municipal government would have to agree with resident representatives on relevant city plan changes. The revised law will also help prevent hospitals, schools and other public facilities in urban centers from being relocated to suburban areas. Such relocations will be subject to approval by municipal governments...more...

[canman]

I must admit, that these large suburban shopping malls have just about killed any semblance of a downtown here in Hachinohe. When I moved here 13 years ago, the downtown wasn't large, that's thanks in part to the stupid city fathers, who decided they didn't want the station in the middle of the city for fear of disease and worse, gaijin. Anyway in the time since I've landed here, store after store and restaurants have closed up shop. I don't think we have a great chamber of commerce either. Hopefully somebody will move back into the city center,a nd it will revitalize our poor city.

[dimwit]

Humm. I wonder who is backing this bill? It couldn't possiblely be the Shotengai landowner who are big time supporters of the LDP and have have seen a precipitous decline in revenues due to the fact that few people want to pay astromonical rents for shops in ghost towns.

[Taro Toporific]

Wal-Mart Leaving Germany
Retailer Employs 11,000 People At German Stores
The Associated Press 10:21 am CDT July 28, 2006
BERLIN -- Wal-Mart said Friday it has agreed to sell its 85 stores in Germany to Metro AG, based in Duesseldorf, Germany.
The move effectively ends Wal-Mart's efforts to crack the German market. Those efforts have been under way for nearly 10 years.
Wal-Mart said the German economic situation makes it difficult for the American giant to achieve the "size and results" it had been seeking....
In the past year, the company became majority owner of Seiyu in Japan, completed its acquisition of Sonae in Brazil, and expanded into six new markets including Northern Ireland, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

[Mulboyne]

That a big retreat. They did pull out of South Korea two months ago but they only had a small number of stores there. Any Wal-Mart country manager can now be in no doubt that the company needs results to justify maintaining an investment.

[Taro Toporific]

....Any Wal-Mart country manager can now be in no doubt that the company needs results to justify maintaining an investment.

Wal-Mart marks progress [?] in Japan market
AP Business 21 Aug
TOKYO - Wal-Mart's Japanese subsidiary said Tuesday its first-half losses grew fivefold, but the unit's chief executive reaffirmed his commitment to Japan even as the U.S. retailer abandons the German and South Korean markets.
Seiyu reported a 54 billion yen ($465 million) loss for the first six months of the year. The 400-store chain, which doesn't break down quarterly numbers, had racked up a 10.6 billion yen loss the same period the previous year. ...more...

[Mulboyne]

The Nikkei reported that Marubeni is looking for partners for Daiei after comments from Marubeni President Katsumata. Cue denials all round.

MarketWatch: Daiei Not in talks on stake sale

Japan's Daiei Inc. said Wednesday it isn't in talks with any third parties about a capital tie-up or possible sale of Daiei shares held by trading company Marubeni Corp. The Japanese retailer, in which Marubeni holds a 44.6% stake, issued the statement after the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Marubeni is seeking to sell part of its stake to Japan's Aeon Co. or Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as part of a strategic alliance to help revive Daiei. Marubeni said Wednesday it is open to strategic partners in operating Daiei and would consider any potential proposals from companies interested in investing in the retailer, but that nothing has been decided. A spokeswoman for Seiyu Ltd., the Japanese subsidiary of Wal-Mart, said she had no comment on the Nikkei report. Aeon issued a statement that it wasn't in talks at this point with Marubeni on purchasing a stake in Daiei.

A little later:

Japan's Aeon to study possible cooperation with Daiei

Japan's Aeon said it will study the possibility of cooperating with Daiei and may enter talks with its main shareholder Marubeni Corp. if a deal looks promising...A spokesman for Aeon, Japan's biggest retailer, said it would study the situation over the next two to three days to decide its position. He characterized Aeon's current stance as a "blank slate" but left open the possibility that Aeon would discuss the matter with Marubeni.

[Taro Toporific]

The Nikkei reported that Marubeni is looking for partners for Daiei after comments from Marubeni President Katsumata. Cue denials all round.

The execs at Wal-Mart Japan bemoan the fact they bought Seiyu and universally wish they bought Daiei. The Japanese feel that Daiei could be the one thing that could "save" Seiyu (Daiei is much better run). I cannot see the hicks* in the home office, Bentonville Arkanas, wanting to throw more good money after bad but...


*(Seriously, those monoligual yokels with dogcrap educations cannot run operations in non-English environments. Mexico, yes---but that's pure Spanglish. Sheee-it,they show up in buyout meetings wearing brown synthetic shoes from WalMart .)

[Taro Toporific]

The execs at Wal-Mart Japan bemoan the fact they bought Seiyu and universally wish they bought Daiei....

Japan: Wal-Mart's Looking for a Partner---Again
businessweek.com SEPTEMBER 13, 2006
.....There is little doubt a hook-up with Daiei makes plenty of sense for Wal-Mart. In a market with few willing sellers, bagging Daiei would give Wal-Mart a huge footprint in Japanese retailing. Combined, the two would have over 10% of Japan's $150 billion supermarket sector. In terms of floor space, the figure would be 12.7%&#8212]....more....[/URL]

[Mulboyne]

The Edge: Wal-Mart's Japan choice - Bulk up or pull out

Almost five years since Wal-Mart Stores Inc landed in Japan, the world's largest retailer has yet to find itself on steady ground. Its 53%-owned local unit Seiyu Ltd has posted five straight years of losses, has not paid a dividend for a decade, and has lost three quarters of its stock market value since Wal-Mart first invested in the Japanese supermarket chain. The US retailer quit South Korea and Germany last year to focus on China and other promising areas, prompting speculation it would also desert Japan in the manner of France's Carrefour, which sold its stores to Aeon in 2005. Some analysts say Wal-Mart should either give up on Japan, where it has invested a total of more than US$1 billion (RM3.49 billion), or buy the whole of Seiyu to speed up an overhaul. Others say Japan's US$1.1 trillion retail market -- the world's second largest after the United States -- is too big to pass up for Wal-Mart's international expansion dream. "I believe that Wal-Mart believes they're in Japan for the long haul and right now, that looks like the right bet," said Darrell Rigby, head of the global retail practice at consultants Bain & Co...more...

[Taro Toporific]

The Edge: Wal-Mart's Japan choice - Bulk up or pull out
Almost five years since Wal-Mart Stores Inc landed in Japan, the world's largest retailer has yet to find itself on steady ground....

SLOGAN: Now shooting for more than six years of losses!:cool:


Wal-Mart's Seiyu forecasts Y5.9 bil loss for 2007
japan today > Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at 07:15 EDT
TOKYO --Wal-Mart's Japanese unit, Seiyu Ltd, said Tuesday it expects to report a group net loss of 5.9 billion yen for the year to December, against its previous estimate of 800 million yen in profit. Seiyu also cut its operating profit forecast to 4.6 billion yen from 10.6 billion yen and its sales projection to 963 billion yen from 992.1 billion yen....more...

[L S]

Wal-Mart to wholly own Japan's Seiyu

TOKYO (AFP) — Wal-Mart said Monday it will spend nearly 900 million dollars to wholly acquire struggling subsidiary Seiyu, saying Japan was crucial for the US retailing giant.
Wal-Mart bought a controlling 50.9 percent stake in Seiyu in December 2005 but has failed to rescue Seiyu from wallowing in the red.
The world's largest retailer said it will launch a tender offer of 100 billion yen (876.65 million dollars) starting Tuesday to entirely own Seiyu.
Seiyu said in a statement it has agreed to the move. The US retailer will offer 140 yen per common share.
"Today's announcement is a reaffirmation of our commitment to Japan, the second largest economy in the world," Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vice chairman Mike Duke said in a statement.
"The Japanese retail market is of major strategic importance to Wal-Mart and our goal is to achieve long-term success and growth in Japan," he said.
Wal-Mart last year exited both Germany and South Korea amid criticism that it could not adapt to local tastes.
Analysts have warned that the low-price retailer also faces a tough sell in Japan, where customers are known for their willingness to pay top yen at small boutiques.
Seiyu last month announced to cut an estimated 450 jobs by offering severance retirement packages to workers aged as young as 44.