EARLIER this year, French retailer Carrefour bought back the 30 per cent stake it sold to its local partner Syarikat Pesaka Antah.
Prior to that, in 2005, Syarikat Pesaka Antah, a firm linked to the Negri Sembilan royalty emerged as a local partner in Magnificient Diagraph Sdn Bhd. The Malaysian law requires foreign hypermarkets to have a local shareholder with at least a 30 per cent stake.
Magnificient Diagraph is the operator of Carrefour in Malaysia.
Syarikat Pesaka Antah director Tunku Naquiddin Tunku Jaa'far when contacted said: "We had an agreement that provided Carrefour the option to take up the stake after five years."
Carrefour had to seek a new partner, when its previous local shareholder Datuk Ishak Ismail, the former managing director of KFC Holdings Bhd, sold his stake.
Magnificient opened its first Malaysian outlet in 1994 with Ishak as a partner. Ishak sold his shares in 2000.
Carrefour outlets made their first profit in 2002.
Based on the latest financial result available from the Companies Commission, for the year to December 31 2008, the retailer made a net profit of RM33.15 million on revenue of RM1.59 billion.
It had a current and non-current asset totalling RM1.05 billion. Its current and non-current liabilities totalled RM691.05 million.
In an interview with Business Times last year, its chief executive officer Guillaume de Colonges said it expected revenue to grow by a fifth in 2010.
There were plans to increase the number of stores in Malaysia to 40 by 2012.
Although the earliest entrant in Malaysia in 1994, Carrefour is the smallest player in terms of stores and sales, trailing the UK's Tesco (35 outlets) and Hong Kong's Dairy Farm (more than 108 Giant hypermarkets and supermarkets).
One reason could be the four-year gap in its store openings in the country between 1999 and 2003. Carrefour has over 4,000 employees in Malaysia.
- by Business Times
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