BIZ BUZZ: Thai retail giants cometh

Call it Fomo or fear of missing out, as youngsters these days say.

Central Group of Thailand, a multiformat retail, real estate and hospitality conglomerate with presence across Asia and Europe, is thirsting for some action in the Philippine market, reliable sources told Biz Buzz.

This is especially after its homeland retail competitor, CP Axtra, hatched a deal with Ayala Corp. for the operation of Makro stores in this country, which is home to about 110 million mostly young consumers.

Central Group is the bigger retail giant in Thailand alone, but CP Axtra has made more inroads into more markets across the region. Suffice to say, Central Group is like the Philippines’ SM, one that had started out in retailing, then diversified into real estate before embarking on overseas expansion.

But if CP Axtra has already struck a deal with Ayala, which has caught a second wind in retailing, will Central Group take the leap of faith on its own?

We hear that like CP Axtra, Central Group is interested in membership grocery shopping as its springboard to this market.

If it doesn’t want to build a business from scratch, this means there are only two local players it could buy into and/or partner with—either S&R Membership Shopping, part of Lucio Co-led Puregold Price Club Co., or Landers Superstore.

It doesn’t seem like the publicly-listed Puregold is looking for a partner. However, we hear that Central Group is now in talks with privately-held Landers, which is owned by the Yu family and CVC.

As the Philippines starts hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit this year, it would earn the embattled Malacanang some brownie points if new investors from neighboring countries would vote with their money in the foreseeable future.

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