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Tag: Jaya Grocer

  • Grab to buy Malaysia’s Jaya Grocer grocery chain

    Grab to buy Malaysia’s Jaya Grocer grocery chain

    Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food-delivery giant Grab is to acquire Malaysian grocery chain Jaya Grocer, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Under the agreement, Grab will acquire Jaya Grocer’s ordinary shares and 75 per cent of preference shares. The company also has the option to buy the remaining 25 per cent of the preferred shares of Jaya Grocer after the closing of the transaction.

    In addition, Grab plans to partner with a local investor which will own 50 per cent of the voting shares in Jaya Grocer. The deal, the value of which has not been disclosed, is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.

    “Following closing, Jaya Grocer is expected to become a subsidiary of GHL (Grab Holdings Limited) and its financial results will be consolidated by GHL,” the company said in the filing.

    The acquisition follows Grab’s IPO debut on the Nasdaq earlier this month.

    Jaya Grocer was founded in 2007 by the Teng family with its first outlet opened in Petaling Jaya. It was acquired by the Asean Industrial Growth Fund in 2016. Last month, the private-equity firm sold its stake back to the Teng family.

    Jaya Grocer currently operates 40 stores across Peninsular Malaysia, with the majority being located in the Klang Valley near Kuala Lumpur.

  • Jaya Grocer to open five more outlets in 2018

    Jaya Grocer to open five more outlets in 2018

    Neighbourhood fresh grocer Jaya Grocer, which celebrates its 10th anniversity, plans to open five more outlets in the Klang Valley this year.

    Its operations director Daniel Teng said on Thursday the outlets would be at Eco Ardence at Setia Alam in February; Kuala Lumpur Eco City (KLEC) at Bangsar in June; Empire City Damansara in July; Kiara 163 at Mont Kiara in September, and Kuala Lumpur East at Taman Melati in December.

    Jaya Grocer has 22 outlets. The latest outlet opened at Sunway Iskandar Citrine Hub in Johor last week.

    As part of its anniversary celebrations, Jaya Grocer is offering 10 items on special promotional prices each week since the start of the year.

    During a briefing for the media at Starling Mall Jaya Grocer in Damansara Utama, he said the management team is led by retail veterans with a family heritage dating back to pre-Independence Malaya.

    “We are proud of our heritage and are yet humbled by the overwhelming support shown by our loyal customers through the decades,” Teng said.

    On the opening of its Bangsar Market by Jaya Grocer, he said it would be one of the largest “urban fresh grocers” in the country.

    This would be located at the KLEC, a strategic and synergistic public-partnership between developer SP Setia Bhd and Kuala Lumpur City Hall.

    “The concept of Bangsar Market by Jaya Grocer is to bring back the feeling of shopping in a fresh wet market which is clean and well laid out. We hope to meet the discerning demands of sophisticated modern day shoppers in the city,” Teng said.

    Bangsar Market will occupy 54,000 sq ft or the entire second level of the mall.

    On Jaya Grocer’s online delivery service, Teng said it would be gradually expanded to cover more areas in the Klang Valley, beginning with its Pearl Point Outlet in Jalan Klang Lama.

    “Since we started at the end of 2016, our online segment has grown by 30%,” said Teng.

    “It has certainly helped to meet a need among modern consumers with a hectic city lifestyle or busy mothers with young children who cannot spare time to shop in person.

    “We provide same day delivery, with the quickest delivery time being within two hours. Furthermore, we only charge a token for the delivery service and prices remain the same as in-store, including promotional items,” he said.

    Jaya Grocer plans to set up a new distribution centre in Puchong that will help improve the overall supply chain management, Teng said.

    Jaya Grocer is operated by Trendcell Sdn Bhd, which is 45% owned by the Asean Industrial Growth Fund (AIGF). The other 55% being held by the founding Teng family which continues to manage the business.

    AIGF, a private equity fund, is 45% owned by CIMB Private Equity, 45% by Mitsubishi and 10% by the Development Bank of Japan.

    Jaya Grocer started in 2007 with its first outlet in Jaya 33 in Petaling Jaya. Jaya Grocer was set up by the Teng family, who are the founding family of Giant Hypermarket and the TMC (Teng MiniMarket Centre) in Bangsar.

    The family sold the Giant chain to Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm group in 1999 for an undisclosed sum. Meanwhile, TMC Store Bangsar has been wholly owned and operated by GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd since November 1980.

  • Investors eye Jaya Grocer Malaysia

    Investors eye Jaya Grocer Malaysia

    Jaya Grocer Malaysia is attracting the interest of private equity firms wanting to buy a shareholding of up to 49 per cent.

    Creador, TPG Growth and a Japanese fund based in Singapore have been shortlisted in a deal said to value the supermarket chain at about RM175 million (US$43.8 million), reports The Star. It quotes sources as saying the exercise for the sale of an equity stake began last year.

    Other firms initially interested in a shareholding included the Abraaj Group and Navis Capital Partners.

    Jaya Grocer is owned by Trendcell, with its 16 outlets posting RM18 million in earnings last year. The chain opened its first outlet in Petaling Jaya in 2007, and now has outlets in such malls as the Empire Shopping Gallery, KLIA2 and The Intermark.

    Jaya Grocer was founded by the Teng family, which also founded Giant Hypermarket and Teng MiniMarket Centre (TMC) in Bangsar. The family sold the Giant chain to Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm group in 1999 for an undisclosed amount. Meanwhile, TMC has been wholly owned and run by GCH Retail (Malaysia) since 1980. Also run by the Teng family is Pasaraya Hero, launched in 2010.

    It is unclear if the current sale process, being run through an open-bid system by Deloitte, includes these supermarkets.

    Meanwhile, Navis has invested in Jaya Grocer competitor Village Grocer the Big Group, which runs Ben’s Independent Grocer.