April 28 (Bloomberg) -- E.Land Group agreed to buy Carrefour SA's Korean unit for 1.75 trillion won ($1.9 billion), beating three other bidders to become South Korea's second- largest discount chain by outlets.
E.Land will pay 300 billion won for the chain, with the remaining 1.45 trillion won to be provided by lenders led by Woori Bank and Kookmin Bank, said Park Ji Gu, spokesman at Seoul-based E.Land. Lotte Shopping Co., Samsung Tesco and Shinsegae Co. also bid for the business to add 32 outlets in Asia's third-largest economy.
For E.Land, the purchase almost triples its outlets from 18 to 50, overtaking Lotte in a discount shopping market that doubled in the past five years to $22 billion. Shares of Lotte had their biggest decline since it started trading in February.
Formed in 1980 as a clothing store in the capital Seoul, privately-held E.Land Group has expanded through takeovers to be the nation's 37th-largest industrial group, with 11 units in fashion retail, distribution and property development.
The Seoul-based group acquired Haitai Store Co. for 63 billion won in 2005, and spent another 51 billion won in the first quarter of this year to buy two companies.
The group has 18 fashion-related retail stores, competing with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. as South Korea's fifth-largest discount store operator.
Shares of Shinsegae rose as much as 1.6 percent 467,500 won while Lotte Shopping fell 4.6 percent to 387,000 won after the announcement.
