Mori Hamada & Matsumoto has advised Japanese retailer Aeon Co on its acquisition of French hypermarket chain Carrefour SA's Malaysian business for 250 million euro ($318.3 million) as part of Aeon’s push into Southeast Asia. Wong & Partners and Clifford Chance have acted for the target.
The deal makes Aeon, Japan's no.1 supermarket operator, one of the biggest retailers in Malaysia, according to Reuters. The company, which has overseas operations in mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand, plans to open stores in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
Carrefour, the world's no. 2 retailer, has been struggling to come up with cash to cut debt, and fund the revival of its struggling European hypermarkets. The company said in August it would shut its two stores in Singapore by the end of this year, two years after it unsuccessfully tried to sell its operations in Singapore and Malaysia.
The Wong & Partners team was led by Adeline Wong and Munir Abdul Aziz, while the Clifford Chance team was led by partners Emma Davies and Mathieu Remy. Partner Katsumasa Suzuki led the Mori Hamada team.
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