Metro Retail pays P499M for Wellworth assets

GAISANO-led Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI) has agreed to pay P498.81 million to an Ayala-Tantoco joint venture that sold the retailing assets of Wellworth department store in Fairview Terraces Mall and UP Town Center Mall.

The deal will allow MRSGI to expand its network of department stores in these two key locations, by a combined total gross floor area of around 25,000 square meters.

In a disclosure by the Tantoco family-led retailer SSI Group – which owns 50 percent of SIAL Specialty Retails Inc. (SIAL) that sold the department store assets to MRSGI – said the assets included fit-out, furniture, fixtures and equipment of the department stores at Fairview Terraces Mall and UP Town Center Mall

Some 25 percent of the purchase price was paid on March 1 while subsequent payments equivalent to 25 percent are scheduled for July 31 and December 31 this year and June 30 next year.