ANALYSIS-Wal-Mart opens 2nd European front
(Recasts, adds Wal-Mart CFO, consultant quotes, stock prices)
By Kevin Drawbaugh, European consumer goods correspondent
LONDON, June 14 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc widened its invasion of Europe on Monday by agreeing to buy UK grocer ASDA Group Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ASSD.L) and aimed its sights at further conquests.
The world's largest retailer put rivals on notice that its objectives in Europe are ambitious and roiled markets across the continent as speculation about its next move heated up.
''Retailers, not only in Britain, but right across Europe this morning were sitting up and taking notice,'' said Richard Hyman, chairman of London-based retail consultancy Verdict.
''There are going to be more deals...and they're going to have to be bigger deals,'' Hyman said.
Wal-Mart agreed to buy ASDA for 6.7 billion pounds ($10.8 billion), gaining a strong footing in Britain to add to its established position in Germany, where it has acquired two hypermarket chains in the past two years in smaller deals.
At a news conference, Wal-Mart treasurer Jay Fitzsimmons said the ASDA acquisition would put Wal-Mart in ''two out of three of the main markets in Europe.'' He did not identify the third, but analysts said Wal-Mart will move soon into France.
In Paris, shares in retailers Casino , Carrefour , Promodes and Pinault-Printemps-Redoute all closed higher in an otherwise dull market.
Asked at the news conference about possible further expansion in Germany, Wal-Mart vice chairman Don Soderquist said: ''I don't think we could digest anything more in Germany.''
Wal-Mart's acquisitions in Germany of 74-store Interspar last year and 21-store Wertkauf in 1997 were viewed as probes by the Bentonville, Ark.-based giant. Not so the sizeable bid for ASDA, the third-largest UK supermarket group with 229 stores.
''This is a much more significant move. This makes it absolutely clear where Wal-Mart's intentions lie...Europe is at the top of their agenda,'' Hyman said.
For Carrefour and other homegrown European retail powers -- such as Metro (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: MEOG.F) of Germany, Ahold of the Netherlands and GIB of Belgium -- the ASDA deal rings alarm bells and more reactive buyouts can be expected.
''This deal will make people speed up decisions they've been looking at. There's going to be quite a lot of movement in the marketplace over the next year or so,'' said Chris Dawson, director at retail consultancy Management Horizons Europe.
Wal-Mart's market capitalisation is $190 billion -- more than its 10 closest European competitors combined. It runs 3,600 stores and is so big in the United States, Canada and Mexico that it must look overseas for growth.
Vast resources give Wal-Mart the clout to buy out almost any rival, but over the years it has expanded mostly by building its own stores. This strategy is being pursued in Asia and Latin America, but will not work in Europe, where land is scarce and regulatory red tape abundant, analysts said.
As a result, Wal-Mart is shopping for European acquisitions and has a long list of possible purchases to fold into its aggressively competitive hypermarket programme, analysts said.
ASDA presented cultural similarities to Wal-Mart that analysts said justified its premium cash bid of 220 pence a share, topping an earlier all-share bid for ASDA from UK group Kingfisher (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: KGF.L) valued at about 186 pence a share on Friday, but worth just 176p after its shares fell on Monday.
Shares in ASDA soared on the Wal-Mart bid to close up 18.6 percent at 218.75 pence per share in London. Shares in Wal-Mart were up less than one percent at $43.0625 per share in New York.
''Wal-Mart won't stop here,'' said Alan Taylor, chief executive of retail consultancy European Insight. ''They can buy ASDA out of petty cash. Carrefour could be next to fall. Then they will eat into other EU markets and change the rules for suppliers and consumers alike.''
(Additional reporting by Bernard Hickey and Jane Merriman)
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