According to Lotte Group, its Chairman Shin Dong-bin on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreement with Salim Group Chairman Anthony Salim to establish an e-commerce platform solution joint venture in the first half of this year. They aim to officially launch the company early next year.
The South Korean retail mogul expects the Indonesian online retail market to grow to 25 trillion won ($20.27 billion) in value by 2020 after the market grew to 3.2 trillion won in 2014. The two companies plan to set up a comprehensive e-commerce platform solution and logistics service that will allow Lotte’s 41 offline retail stores and one department store operating in the Southeast Asian country as well as Salim’s 11,000 offline convenient stores, Indomaret, to sell and deliver products to Indonesian consumers. They will also introduce some popular products of Lotte Mart and Lotte Department Store in Korea through the new platform.
In Indonesia, Lotte is operating one department store, 41 retail stores (including two grocery stores), 31 Lotteria fast-food franchises, two Angel-in-us cafés and two Lotte duty-free shops (one in airport and the other in downtown). In 2010, the retail group acquired Titan Chemicals, one of the leading petrochemical company in Southeast Asia, to gain a foothold in the petrochemical industry in the region.
Salim Group, the biggest Indonesian conglomerate, operates a diverse array of business ranging from food, infrastructure, logistics, telecommunications, media and automobile, to real estate.