Lotte to open 300 stores in China in 10 years
ju4 wa4i dia4n zo1ng he2 ba4o da4o :\n  SHANGHAI, June 11 (Reuters) - Lotte Shopping Co <023530.KS>,\nSouth Korea's biggest department store operator, said on\nWednesday it plans to open 300 hypermarkets in China in the next\ndecade, as it competes for market share with Wal-Mart <WMT.N> and\nCarrefour <CARR.PA> in the world's fastest-growing major economy.\nLotte, which recently entered China by acquiring Beijing-area\ncash and carry wholesaler CTA Makro, will open its first Lotte\nMart store in Beijing next Wednesday.\nLotte will also rebrand seven Makro outlets, located in\nBeijing and neighbouring Tianjin, into Lotte Marts, Lotte China\nVice President Yang Xiaohong said.\nLotte, a unit of Lotte Group, is also seeking to buy more\nChinese retailers and plans to expand to the eastern province of\nShandong and to Liaoning in the northeast.\nLotte last year agreed to pay about 1.3 billion yuan ($188\nmillion) for 100 percent of CTA Makro, which competes with Metro\nAG <MEOG.DE> in China.\nMakro's outlets are being converted into hypermarkets that\nwill compete with Wal-Mart and Carrefour, Yang said. Lotte will\nalso open its first department store this year.\nThe Lotte Group's food unit entered China in 1994 and sells\nchewing gum, biscuits and chocolates.\nThe group has also invested $1 billion to build a commercial\ncomplex in the northeastern city of Shenyang that includes a\nshopping centre, a theme park and hotels.\n($1=6.922 Yuan)\n(Reporting by Samuel Shen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)\n((samuel.shen@reuters.com; 86 21 6104 1789; Reuters Messaging:\nsamuel.shen.reuters.com@reuters.net))\nKeywords: LOTTE/CHINA