SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) plans to invest around 1 billion reais ($316 million) in Brazil through 2019 to refurbish about 120 stores, as larger rivals in Latin America’s biggest economy invest heavily to retain cash-strapped customers.
“We’ve already done about 10 percent of it this year,” Flavio Cotini, Wal-Mart’s chief executive in Brazil, told reporters at the Latam Retail Show in Sao Paulo on Tuesday. Wal-Mart is Brazil’s third-largest diversified retailer.
Goldman Sachs Group analysts expect Grupo Carrefour Brasil SA (CRFB3.SA), Brazil’s largest food retailer, to almost double stores over the next three years, spending fresh capital it raised in a July stock listing.
Rival GPA SA (PCAR4.SA) is also undertaking an ambitious store renovation to prepare for recovering consumer demand after Brazil’s worst recession on record.
Reporting by Aluisio Alves; Additional reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Richard Chang
