Japan’s Aeon expands operation in Vietnam
Aeon, the leading Japanese retail and financial services corporation, has announced its US$1.5 billion investment plan to build 20 shopping malls across Vietnam by 2020.
Aeon’s first shopping centre is expected to be opened to the public in Celadon urban area in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2014. The second is scheduled for October of the same year in Canary urban area in southern Binh Duong province.
Hanoi will see the first Aeon shopping mall in 2015, said Aeon Vietnam General Director Yasuo Nishitohge.
In 2011, the Japanese group received the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee’s investment license to realise its plan of establishing a chain of shopping malls in Vietnam, though it set foot in the country several years ago.
Aeon has already partnered with a Vietnamese business to launch a Ministop convenience chain with 17 shops in Ho Chi Minh City thus far.
As the largest retail and financial services corporation in Asia-Pacific, Aeon earned about US$62 billion in revenue last year, from 12,000 shopping centres and outlets.