Lotte Shopping looking to expand international department store network

According to an interview with Reuters, Daniel Kim, a Director at Lotte Shopping's Department Store division, has said the group is considering entry into India. Kim said the South Korean company plans to invest about KRW360 billion (USD284.62 million) in overseas businesses this year, following on from recent market entries into Russia and China. In addition, the group has made some acquisitions in China and Indonesia in the hypermarket sector, a strategy which Kim said was still open for department stores as well. "[A] good buying opportunity for us would be a local store chain that holds good brand image among local consumers, but just happen to suffer from financial problems," Kim told Reuters. Lotte plans to open its second department store in China in 2011, but now intends to boost this number to around 20 by 2018. Meanwhile, the company's first Vietnamese department store is scheduled to open in 2014. The announcement came despite losses in its fledgling Russian and Chinese stores, which Kim believes will move into profit by 2015.

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