Lippo, the Indonesian-backed Hong Kong-listed conglomerate, said yesterday it would invest up to HK$10 billion over the next three years to develop property and retail holdings in the mainland, while continuing to offload non-core assets.
Managing director John Lee Luen-wai said the company aimed to generate 70 per cent of revenue from the mainland within a decade, compared with about 10 per cent now, as it narrowed its sprawling focus on to property and retail in the region.
Mr Lee said that in the next five years it aimed to open 18 medium to high-end department stores of at least 30,000 square metres gross floor area under the brand Robbinz in second-tier Chinese cities, such as Suzhou and Xuzhou.
Its first department store in the mainland will open in Tianjin on November 1.
'Competition [in the retail sector] in the mainland's top cities has already been quite fierce, so our strategy is to open department stores in prime locations of second-tier cities which have development potential,' Mr Lee said.
For the Tianjin venue - which at a gross floor area of 98,000 sq metres is one of the largest retail complexes in the city - the company has secured a 20-year lease.
Lippo expected to open another department store in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, by year-end, and then three more venues next year, Mr Lee said.