KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR) disclosed on Monday that it has finalized the purchase of the share of Seiyu from Walmart Inc. Rakuten DX Solution, a unit of Rakuten has also joined KKR and purchased the holdings of Seiyu GK. Seiyu which was founded in 1963 is a nationwide supermarket chain in Japan. It has 300 retail units.
After the completion of the purchase agreement, KKR now holds the 65% stake in Seiyu while Rakuten DX Solution holds the 20% stake of the firm. After selling the shares of Seiyu, Walmart now holds a 15% stake in the firm. KKR disclosed that it has invested in the firm through its Asia private equity firm.
After this acquisition, Seiyu has the chance to leverage the merged retail expertise and innovation of Rakuten, KKR, and Walmart. Furthermore, this investment will also speed up the digital revolution of Seiyu to become a prominent omnichannel retailer in Japan.
KKR, Walmart, and Rakuten all are planning to back the growth and longer-term strategy of Seiyu in Japan. Seiyu has attained its highest sales and profitability levels of the past decade. It has reported that its net sales increases by 5.6% to JPY785 billion in 2020. In the previous two fiscal years, Seiyu has made a struggle and succeeded in enhancing profitability and gaining the market share.
Additionally, Rakuten Seiyu Netsuper which is cooperatively run by Seiyu and Rakuten reported an almost 40% YOY growth in gross retail sales in the Q4 of 2020. On Monday, Mr. Tsuneo Okubo has gained the authorization as CEO of Seiyu to guide the firm into its next phase of growth and expansion.