Report: Home Depot Plans to Acquire Chinese Retail
Tianjin, China, October 11, 2006--The Home Depot, according to a report from SinoCast, is planning to acquire 14 outlets of The Home Way, a Chinese peer in Tianjin, for no more than USD 100 million, people familiar with the matter said.
The news service said that Home Way set up most of its stores in second-tier cities like Xi'an, but the company has no outlets in Shanghai and other first-tier cities.
Home Depot will buy smaller building material retailers at the initial stage and then open its own stores in China as did in Mexico, according to the report. It also said that the company will choose to purchase big counterparts thereafter, according to Bill Patterson, the first to be named president for Home Depot Asia.
However, Shanghai is a key place whether Home Depot can achieve success in China because the city has been the largest market in the country for B&Q, the leading player of the sector.
