Metro Retail shelling out P500M for Wellworth assets

Gaisano-led Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI) is paying P498.81 million for the retailing assets of Wellworth department store in Fairview Terraces Mall and UP Town Center Mall that it acquired from an Ayala-Tantoco joint venture.

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 some 25,000 square meters.

In a disclosure yesterday, the SSI Group—which owns 50 percent of SIAL Specialty Retails Inc. (SIAL) that sold the 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 P498.81 million purchase price was paid on March 1 while subsequent payments equivalent to 25 percent are scheduled for July 31 and Dec. 31 this year and June 30 next year, according to the SSI disclosure.

“The sale of the department store assets is aligned with SSI’s strategy to focus its resources on its core specialty retailing business and  convenience store business,” it added.

In partnership with the Itochu group, the Ayala-SSI tandem entered the convenience store business in 2012 under Japanese retailing chain FamilyMart, the world’s second largest convenience store operator.

But while the store assets of SIAL department stores were sold to MRSGI, their joint venture company has kept the “Wellworth” brand with the possibility of deploying it elsewhere in the future.

MRSGI is a newly listed company and one of the largest retail players in the Philippines. It operates the largest department store and hypermarket operator in the Visayas region and is an anchor tenant in some of ALI’s commercial developments, such as in Market!Market! shopping mall in Taguig.