Lotte Mart develops shopping center in Binh Thuan

The sources from Binh Thuan Province’s Department of Planning and Investment said that Lotte Mart has been licensed to construct the general shopping center, called Lotte Phan Thiet, in Phan Thiet City.

The center, covering nearly 7,500 square meters at the Ton Duc Thang-Hung Vuong Intersection, will have seven floors and cost an estimated $30 million.

Like other big shopping centers in HCMC, the Lotte Phan Thiet project with total floor space of some 35,000 square meters will serve as a modern complex when in place.

Besides, Lotte Mart will house children’s entertainment areas and billiards, bowling and video games clubs in the facility. There will be retail spaces, cinemas and other services in the area.

Lotte Mart is the first foreign retailer to open a commercial center in Binh Thuan and the project is part of the retailer’s strategy to expand nationwide.

Lotte Mart in end-2012 put into operation two facilities in Vietnam – Lotte Mart Danang in Hoa Cuong Bac Ward in Danang’s Hai Chau District and Lotte Mart Bien Hoa in Amata commercial area in Long Binh Ward, Dong Nai Province.

Like the first two centers of Lotte Mart in HCMC, both Lotte Mart Danang and Lotte Mart Bien Hoa will also have amusement services.

Lotte Mart entered Vietnam in 2006 as a joint venture with a local partner based in HCMC. According to the investment certificate that Lotte Mart won in October 2006, the firm at first had capital of $65 million, of which the local partner, Minh Van Company, held a 20pct stake worth $13 million and the Korean investor an 80pct stake valued at $52 million.

Lotte Mart had got approval to turn its joint venture in HCMC into a 100pct foreign-invested company. At the same time, the Korean investor has raised its charter capital to $120 million from the initial US$65 million with an aim to develop more projects in Vietnam in the near future.

Lotte Mart has set a target of opening 60 new supermarkets nationwide by 2020, instead of the original plan of 30.