Robinsons Buys 100 Percent of Ministop Philippines
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Japanese convenience store chain Ministop is pulling out of the Philippines and South Korea and will instead focus on its home market. A report in Nikkei Asia said the company is selling its 40 percent stake in Robinsons Convenience Stores, Inc. (RCSI) to Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc (RRHI). RCSI is a joint venture between RRHI, the retail arm of the Gokongwei family, and Ministop Co. Ltd. of Japan. RCSI operates about 460 Ministop locations in the country.
That means the Gokongwei’s Robinsons Group will now assume full ownership of the Ministop business in the country.
Ministop—the fourth largest convenience store chain in Japan after 7-Eleven, Family Mart and Lawson—entered the Philippine market in 2001 with the opening of the first Ministop at the EDSA Central MRT station in Quezon City. Back then, RCSI was a joint venture between the Robinsons Retail Group and the Mitsubishi Group of Japan. Mitsubishi sold a significant portion of its interest in the JV to the Ministop parent until 2018, when it unloaded its remaining 12-percent stake—eight percent to Robinsons and the remaining four percent to Ministop Co. Ltd.
The specific terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, Ministop will also sell its business to local conglomerate Lotte for around $267 million, according to the Nikkei Asia report. That also effectively ends its presence in that market. Ministop is the fifth-largest convenience store chain in South Korea.
Esquire Philippines is published by Summit Media Inc., which is also a unit under the Gokongwei Group.
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