Wal-Mart: #1 in China

Faced with problems in many of their foreign ventures (Germany, Korea, Japan, UK), Wal-Mart has apparently decided to buy their way to the top in China.

Retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores is set to buy a Chinese hypermarket group for about one billion dollars in a deal that would make it the leading chain in China, the Wall Street Journal said.

Citing people familiar with the transaction, the business daily said the US giant had agreed to purchase the Chinese hypermarkets of Taiwanese-owned group Trust-Mart.

If approved by Chinese regulators, the deal would take Wal-Mart past its French rival Carrefour in the number of hypermarkets in China. Carrefour had also tried to buy Trust-Mart, according to the newspaper.

Wal-Mart has 61 stores in China, Trust-Mart has 100. The plan is to take over the Trust-Mart stores in chunks over the next three years.