Saieh buys first chunk of Ripley

Alvaro Saieh has bought into Ripley, acquiring a 5% stake 95 days ahead of the deadline he and the Calderon family had thrashed out not so long ago (early May 2009). The owner and controller of the supermarket chain SMU and also the financial group Corpbanca, Saieh is still negotiating his entry into the controlling shareholders' pact regarding the retail chain Ripley. He has spent US$44.3mil on the stake and can buy a further 15% of Ripley from Marcelo Calderon before the end of November. If the option is taken up, Calderon will receive US$178mil for a 20% stake (until yesterday, he owned 42% of Ripley); if Saieh is also welcomed into the pact before December, Calderon will receive US$198mil for the stake.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
September 1, 2009

La Polar sets sights firmly on Colombia

The general director of La Polar, Pablo Alcalde states that of late the markets have misread the retail sector and he has persuasive arguments to offer, mainly contained on the Chilean chain's balance sheet profits for the department-store group grew 50% in the first semester, a better result than its better-known brethren Cencosud and Ripley. Aimed mainly at the social classes C3 and D, La Polar is at work on expansion into Colombia, where it plans to open six stores in the coming years. In Chile, it will open another six through 2010-2012 too, using the funds that will be raised in the capital increase La Polar had approved on Friday (of Peso$50bil). The plan is to buy stores in Colombia, sell them off and lease them back.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
August 29, 2009

Wal-Mart Announces Tender Offer for Ownership of D&S

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. today announced it will launch a tender offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares and American Depositary Shares of Distribucion y Servicio D&S S.A. (DYS).

The tender offer price is denominated at US$0.408 per common share. This offer price represents a premium of approximately 37.4 percent over the average closing price for the prior 30 trading days.

"Moving into Chile is an important step in implementing Wal-Mart International's strategy. We continue to focus on portfolio optimization, global leverage and winning in every market," said Michael T. Duke, vice chairman, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. "A successful tender offer will give Wal-Mart the opportunity to be a significant participant in Chile, which continues to have a strong and growing economy among South America countries."

The tender offer is expected to commence Dec. 23, 2008 in the United States and Chile. Wal-Mart has set as a minimum condition of the tender offer, the acquisition of at least 50.01% of D&S's fully-diluted common shares. In order to demonstrate their support for the offer, the Ibanez family, the existing controlling stockholders of D&S, have agreed to tender a portion of their D&S shares. These controlling shareholders will enter into a long-term stockholders' agreement with Wal-Mart regarding D&S, which will continue to operate with its existing leadership, associates and brands.

According to Craig Herkert, President and CEO, the Americas, Wal-Mart International, "This investment demonstrates our deep respect for D&S, which has a long history of providing the best value to Chilean consumers. We share a laser focus on price leadership just as we do in Wal-Mart's 10 retail markets throughout the Americas. Both companies also have the same core values and business philosophies: respect for the individual, service to the customer and striving for excellence."

About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart discount stores, supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club locations in the United States. The Company operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom and, through a partnership, in India. The Company's securities are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT. More information about Wal-Mart can be found by visiting http://www.walmartstores.com. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.

About Distribucion y Servicio S.A.

D&S is a Chilean company whose stock is traded in the national and international Stock Exchanges. It is made up of a group of companies whose core business is food retail through different supermarket and hypermarket formats aimed at satisfying customers' diverse needs. It covers the whole country, from Arica to Punta Arenas.

Publication: PR Newswire
Provider: PR Newswire
December 20, 2008

Golborne leaving Cencosud with his head held high

Laurence Golborne Riveros (aged 47) will leave his job as general director of Chilean retail giant Cencosud on January 31, 2009, after seven years and ten months at the helm. The group posted a turnover of US$1.5bil in the year 2000; it will close 2008 with sales of US$10bil. Poached away from Gener on the basis on his austerity, plain-thinking and creativity by Horst Paulmann, Golborne employed all sorts of financial artifices to finance the group's colossal expansion (flotations, capital increases, link-ups with investors, bond issues etc). The most impressive was a share exchange that allowed Cencosud to buy department-store chain Paris. The departing executive oversaw a frenzied seven-month period last year in which Cencosud entered nations three, four and five (after Chile and Argentina), namely Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
December 10, 2008

Cencosud projects 70 percent rise in internet sales

Retail giant Cencosud is expecting online sales to reach US$50 million by the end of this year, company officials said this week. Outlets such as Paris, Jumbo and Easy have improved websites, and were recently praised by the Chilean Internet security company Netprovider as some of the best retail stores online. The company's Internet sales growth is a result of the focus placed on improving the online sales process and improvements made to each of the stores’ websites, Cencosud sales manager Andrés Silva said.

Further indications of the company's expansion on the Internet can be seen in the growth of its online management department, which had fewer than 100 people in 2006 and now employs over 300.

Paris, Cencosud's first retail outlet to open up shop online, now accounts for more than half of the group's annual Internet sales. Their website, Paris.cl, launched in September 1999 and is expected to sell more than US$30 million this year. According to Silva, within four years the website will have the most sales of the entire Paris chain.

Jumbo is Cencosud’s chain of supermarkets that offers food and beverage products and is also a chain of restaurants. Its Internet sales are expected to triple this year compared to 2007, when it made close to US$20 million.

Easy, Concosud's chain of home appliance centers, is the youngest of the group's Internet players, having only been online since January of this year. "We didn't really know what would happen [with Easy] but it's been running for more than five months now and is growing at a rate of 50 percent each month," Silva said.

Publication: Santiago Times
Provider: Chip News
Date: July 9, 2008

Plaza group to expand mall operations in peru

Plaza Group, the Chilean-owned retail mall operator, hopes to become the largest mall operator in Peru by 2010. Plaza built its first international mall in November 2007, in the northern Peruvian city of Trujillo, and it plans rapid expansion in the neighboring country as part of a US$938 million investment in new malls in Chile and Peru.

Peru is seen as a land of opportunity by the Plaza Group, as there are currently no competing large mall operators in the country. Chilean competitor Parque Arauco had plans to build a US$40 million mall in Arequipa, Peru, but has since announced that it will reformulate the plans in response to the Plaza Group’s new projects.

According to Plaza President Sergio Cardone, the group is also studying potential projects in Argentina and Colombia. Cardone said that Plaza would “most likely” make Colombia its third country of operation, and was evaluating how best to enter the Colombian market.

Plaza Group is controlled by Falabella, a Chilean holding company that has a 59.5 percent stake. Falabella currently operates retail stores in Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia.

Publication: Santiago Times
Provider: Chip News
Date: June 10, 2008

Parque Arauco to invest heavily in Colombia

Parque Arauco will invest US$200mil in entering the Colombian market with US$70mil of that total to be spent by the Chilean shopping-centre group on the Pereira mall and its 40,201 square metres of rentable space. Parque Arauco is controlled by the families Said and Abumohor and should inaugurate this first Colombian mall in the final quarter of 2009. In Chile, Parque Arauco will build the malls Quilicura (US$42mil, to open in May 2009) and Pajaritos (US$9mil, to open next month) as well as the Torre de Oficinas Cerro Colorado (US$35mill, to open in August 2008). In Peru, it will open three shopping centres - San Isidro, US$84mil; Arequipa, US$40mil; and the strip center Chorrillo, US$4mil before February 2010.

Publication: SABI - Business News
Provider: South American Business Information
Date: April 24, 2008