Lucky sells big stake to Asian retail giant

[PHNOM PENH POST]

Big Asian retailer Dairy Farm Group has formed a joint venture with Cambodia’s Lucky Market Group, the operator of Lucky Supermarket and Lucky Burger, according to an announcement yesterday.

LMG, which opened its first supermarket in 1993, will join a stable of brands already controlled by Dairy Farm, including Cold Storage, Giant and Guardian in Malaysia and Hero in Indonesia.

“Many Cambodians grew up expecting quality products and food from our businesses all these years,”  LMG executive chairman Heng Hang Meng said in the statement.

“I am confident our joint venture with the Dairy Farm, a leading pan-Asian retailer, will continue to deliver to our loyal Cambodian patrons with premium products and services.”

The joint venture, DFI Lucky Private Limited, was effective March 8, the announcement said, but no other details of the agreement were disclosed.

In its earnings report for 2011, released on March 1, Dairy Farm said it had agreed to acquire a 70 per cent equity interest in “a supermarket chain in Cambodia” last month, with the local joint-venture partner retaining 30 per cent.

“This venture creates a good platform for growth in this developing economy, and increases to 11 the number of territories in Asia in which the group is active,” Dairy Farm said in the report, without offering specifics of the deal.

Officials at LMG declined to comment yesterday.

Dairy Farm officials at the company’s Hong Kong headquarters could not be reached.