WAL-MART Brazil considers acquisitions of small supermarket chains

The president of Wal-Mart Brazil, Vicente Trius, in a recent interview, has said that the retailer will consider acquisitions of small supermarket chains as long as the deals “make sense. "We won't discard the possibility of acquisitions of chains as small as 10 stores.” That's because smaller acquisitions can sometime yield better returns on the investment, he said. "We're open to these types of deals as long as they make sense." According to Mr Trius, the majority of large-scale deals in the Brazilian retail industry have already been completed. In addition to possible small-scale acquisitions, Mr Trius said that Wal-Mart was boosting its investment budget to open more stores in 2007. The retailer has raised its investment total to BRL1 billion (USD464.3 million) in 2007, up from previous estimates of BRL700 million (USD325 million) and expects to open 28 stores in 2007, with 17 to be built in the northeast region of Brazil.