FILE PHOTO – A man talks on his mobile phone in front of a Wal-Mart store in Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 16, 2016. REUTERS/Nacho Doce
January 21, 2018
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Private equity firm Advent is in talks to buy 50 percent of Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s <WMT.N> operations in Brazil, according to a report in Brazil’s O Globo newspaper on Sunday.
Wal-Mart operates in 18 Brazilian states with 471 stores, according to the company’s local website. The company’s Brazilian unit reported revenues of almost 30 billion reais ($9.39 billion) in 2016.
Efforts to reach Advent’s local office in Sao Paulo and press representatives of Wal-Mart in Brazil on Sunday were unsuccessful.
O Globo did not provide a source or any details on the state of the talks or possible value of an eventual deal.
Retail sales in Brazil are starting to recover from a two-year recession. Christmas sales were 5.6 percent higher than a year ago, according to credit data supplier Serasa Experian.
(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Paul Simao)
