(Source: The Korea Herald)

Aiming to expand its presence in Korea, Britain`s top retailer, Tesco, is looking to invest up to $600 million in building more stores in Gyeonggi Province, company officials said.

“We are keenly interested in a variety of projects that Gyeonggi Province is pursuing. We are willing to invest $500 million to $600 million in businesses in Gyeonggi Province,” Oh Sang-keun, an official of Samsung Tesco, told The Korea Herald.

Oh participated in an investment-relations conference hosted by the local government yesterday in Seoul.

Samsung Tesco is a joint venture of Tesco and a subsidiary of Korea`s top conglomerate Samsung Group.

The joint venture was set up in 1999 when Tesco purchased a 51 percent stake in Homeplus from Samsung Corp. Since then, the British company has increased its shares in the firm. Tesco currently holds a 94 percent stake while Samsung Corp. has 6 percent.

Oh said more Samsung Tesco stores will be set up in five or six cities, including Anseong, in Gyeonggi Province.

Samsung Tesco has 63 hypermarkets – Homeplus – and 60 Super Express stores in Korea. The firm aims to almost double the number of Homeplus stores to 120 by 2012, mainly in the Seoul metropolitan region covering Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, Oh said.

About half of Korea`s 50 million people reside in the Seoul metropolitan region. “Tesco plans to expand business in Korea, especially in Seoul and other metropolitan regions,” he said.

The Gyeonggi Province IR conference held at the Renaissance Hotel drew about 400 people from Korean and foreign firms.

It was the first time that Gyeonggi Province held an IR forum focused on the service industry.

Gyeonggi Province has aggressively lured investment in the service industry this year in a bid to diversify its business profile. Previously, most investment in the region came in to the manufacturing industry, such as semiconductor, liquid crystal display and auto parts businesses.

In 2007, the provincial government, led by Governor Kim Moon-soo, attracted a total of $6.5 billion in investment.

Ninety percent of the money came from four large-scale investments in service businesses; a Universal Studios theme park and resort; Yeoju premium outlet; a tourism and leisure complex, dubbed “Eco-design city” in Pocheon; and ProLogis distribution centers.

By Jin Hyun-joo

(hjjin@heraldm.com)