Aeon Co ... Growth Spurred By Existing & New Store Openings

It is diversifying into furniture and electronics stores.

The company operates shopping centres, department stores and pharmacies.

Its first mega store that will house both department store cum supermarket operator AEON Co Bhd and AEON Big Sdn Bhd’s hypermarket chain could be ready in two years from June 2014.

The maiden megastore will be outside Klang Valley.

Both retailers are looking to collaborate and open large scale shopping centres that are able to capture a bigger market segment. AEON Bis is wholly owned by Japan’s AEON Co Ltd, which has a 51% stake in AEON Co (M).

Meanwhile expects AEON Co (M)’s retail space to increase by over 2.5 million sq ft by end of 2015 from 11 million sq ft. The store openings will be in Bukit Mertajam, Taiping and Quill City Mall in 2014. In 2015, the retailer is expected to open in Shah Alam and possibly Kota Baru.

A total of rm1.4 billion in 2014 to 2015 has been set aside as capex for store openings, renovation and land acquisition.

In five from 2014, it could expand into Terengganu, Pahang and Sarawak.

It has no plans to set up a REIT now (June 2014).

Going forward, growth will be spurred by both existing stores and new store openings.

AEON Malaysia formed a joint venture with Thailand’s furniture retailer Index Living Mall Co in Sept 2014 to set up shops in Malaysia.