China fashion retailer buys S Korean brand to expand

Shanghai

NANJING dressmaker V-Grass Fashion Co has an audacious plan to become the Valentino of the Chinese fashion world, and buying a South Korean fast-fashion brand with more than six times as many stores in China is part of its move to get there.

V-Grass agreed this month to acquire the Chinese business of E-Land Group's Teenie Weenie in a deal valued at about US$900 million. For V-Grass, which is planning its first overseas store in Milan, the purchase will help support falling sales and profit as the Shanghai-listed retailer shuts a third of its lower-end outlets and restructures to focus on the luxury-minded, according to vice-president Tao Weimin.