The French retail group Auchan sells its share in the Taiwanese RT-Mart to the local market leader. In doing so, the group completely withdrew from Asia, one year after selling its Chinese activities.
Exit from Asia completed
Auchan Retail sells its 64.83 per cent stake in Taiwanese retailer RT-Mart to local supermarket group PX-Mart. The Ruentex group also divested its stake in RT-Mart, resulting in PX-Mart owning 95.97 per cent of the company after completing the transaction.
The sale is part of the plan to divest non-strategic assets and confirms Auchan Retail’s geographical reorientation. In October of last year, the French retail group already sold its Chinese division Sun Art to Alibaba for three billion euros. With the sale of the Taiwanese operations, the exit from Asia is now complete.
RT-Mart operates three types of stores in Taiwan: hypermarkets, convenience stores and a hybrid concept consisting of a food store joined by a multi-restaurant area. The company employs 4,200 people and its turnover in 2020 came to the equivalent of 800 million euros.
The new owner, PX-Mart, was founded in 1998 and is the largest supermarket chain in Taiwan. The group, which the Ming-Hsiung Lin family controls, has more than 1,000 outlets and a turnover of 3.7 billion euros.
