[Courtesy of Lotte Department Store]
Lotte Department Store, a unit of South Korea's fifth largest conglomerate Lotte Group, said Monday its has forged a deal with China's Citi Group to set up a retail joint venture.
Under the deal, the South Koral department store chain will take over operating rights of a Citi Group shopping mall in Shanghai in the second half of next year and three more malls to be built later.
Lotte Group's retail units, led by Lotte Mart, have aggressively expanded their presence in China. They have outlets in major Chinese cities but none in Shanghai, which is crowded with a lot of shopping malls.
Lotte Mart first entered the Chinese supermarket business in 2008 through the acquisitions of the retailer Makro, a unit of Germany's Metro AG.
Aju New Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
