In Malaysia, CP Group already has a major retail presence through Lotus’s, formerly Tesco, which it acquired back in 2020. There are now 70 Lotus’s stores in Malaysia.
KUALA LUMPUR (March 4): Thailand’s CP Axtra Public Company Ltd is acquiring The Food Purveyor, which runs Village Grocer and Ben's Independent Grocer, for RM1.7 billion from private equity firm Navis Capital.
The proposed acquisition of The Food Purveyor, which also owns BSC Fine Foods, Pasaraya OTK, and The Food Merchant, is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2026, CP Axtra said in a filing to the Thai stock exchange.
“However, the parties are in the process of fulfilling the conditions precedent as specified in the share sale and purchase agreement, including obtaining approvals from the relevant regulatory authorities,” CP Axtra said.
CP Axtra, the retail unit of Thai multinational conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group also known as CP Group, is ramping up its presence across Southeast Asia at a time of soft consumer sentiment in its home market.
In Malaysia, CP Group already has a major retail presence through Lotus's, formerly Tesco, which it acquired back in 2020. There are now 70 Lotus's stores in Malaysia.
The Edge understands that several mall owners and operators have already been informed by The Food Purveyor on the acquisition.
The two biggest high-end supermarket chains in Malaysia are Village Grocer and Jaya Grocer. In 2022, Southeast Asia's biggest ride e-hailing and delivery firm Grab Holdings Ltd acquired a majority stake in Jaya Grocer Holdings Sdn Bhd, a deal said to be worth up to RM1.8 billion.
CP Axtra said it is drawn to The Food Purveyor for its access to locations unattainable by Lotus’s hypermarkets as well as the growth of the premium grocery market in Malaysia.
“Through this acquisition, we leapfrog entry barriers to prime, high-income locations in the city which [have] been secured by [established] players, gaining immediate access to key locations with strong customer traffic,” the company said in its presentation deck on the acquisition.
There are also further upsides from the larger scale, including “procurement optimisation, centralised distribution, omni-channel acceleration, private label expansion, cost efficiencies, and cross-selling opportunities across the combined platform”, CP Axtra said.
The Food Purveyor has 34 Village Grocer stores, six Ben’s Independent Grocer supermarkets, six ultra-premium The Food Merchant outlets, one BSC Fine Foods store, and three traditional Pasaraya OTK supermarkets.
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