FamilyMart operators sell Wellworth assets to Gaisano

An Ayala-Tantoco joint venture has sold its Wellworth department stores in Fairview Terraces Mall and UP Town Center Mall to Gaisano-led Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI).

The deal would allow MRSGI to expand its network of department stores to these two key locations, which have a combined total gross floor area of around 25,000 square meters, the firm said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

In a separate disclosure, Ayala Land Inc. and SSI Group Inc. announced that their joint venture firm, Sial Specialty Retailers Inc. (SIAL), had sold its fixed assets in these two new shopping hubs.

Only the department store assets were sold to MRSGI. A spokesperson from ALI said SIAL said they would be keeping the “Wellworth” brand with the possibility of deploying this elsewhere in the future.

Asked for the rationale behind this transaction, ALI senior vice president and group head of commercial business Jose Emmanuel Jalandoni said: “ALI would like to focus on its core business of developing and operating malls.”

For its part, SSI said it would be focusing primarily on its specialty retailing business and on its convenience store joint venture with ALI. In partnership with the Itochu group, the Ayala-SSI tandem entered into the convenience store business in 2012 under Japanese retailing chain FamilyMart, the world’s second largest convenience store operator.

The buyer, MRSGI, is a newly listed company and one of the largest retail players in the Philippines. It operates the largest department store and hypermarket in the Visayas region and is an anchor tenant in some of ALI’s commercial developments.