Wal-Mart could enter Russian market in 2 years - senior VP Khasis
MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) - U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart could enter the Russian market in a couple of years, a senior executive at the company said.
"There is no other country with such potential for the development of the retail business as Russia. Therefore I believe that eventually, say in a couple of years, Wal-Mart will certainly enter the Russian market," the retailer's senior vice president, Lev Khasis said in an interview with RT television.
However, opportunities for entering the market through organic growth are dwindling, he said.
"There are fewer and fewer opportunities for organic entry, which is the cheapest way to enter the market, and there are no cheap entry tickets like those acquired by Auchan and Metro ten years ago," Khasis said.
Rumors about Wal-Mart's impending entry into Russia have been around for years. Market players think the U.S. retailer will buy a local player rather than open stores in Russia from scratch.
In 2010, Wal-Mart held negotiations to acquire the Kopeika chain, but lost out to X5 Retail Group, which bought the chain for 51.5 billion rubles.
X5 was headed by Khasis at the time. He stepped down in March 2011 and in October was appointed senior vice president at Wal-Mart, where he is in charge of integration of acquired chains, global synergies in purchasing and innovation.
After losing Kopeika to X5, Wal-Mart closed its office in Moscow.
Since Wal-Mart has decided to enter the market through acquisitions rather than organic growth, and there are no obvious candidates for acquisition in the medium-term, it does not make economic sense to maintain the Moscow office, Walmart International head Doug MacMillon said at the time, adding that the company would continue to study the possibility of entering the Russian market.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with annual sales of more than $400 billion, operates more than 10,000 stores under various brands in 28 countries.