Lotte Shopping, under South Korean conglomerate Lotte, earned revenues of KRW239bn ($175.1mn) from retail activities in Vietnam in the first half of this year, up 25.8% year-on-year. Its department store business recorded revenues of KRW39bn ($28.6mn) in the six-month period, nearly quadruple year-on-year. This was the highest among all of Lotte Shopping's overseas businesses, followed by Indonesia with KRW11bn ($8.1mn) and China with KRW8bn ($5.9mn). Domestic market South Korea was the biggest cash earner with KRW1,594bn ($1.17bn), down 0.6%.

The hypermarket segment posted revenues of KRW200bn ($146.5mn), up 11.3% year-on-year. This was the segment’s lowest overseas result for the company. South Korea, the home market, topped this segment with revenues of KRW2,022bn ($1.48bn). In terms of operating profit, Lotte Shopping’s department store business in Vietnam made a loss of KRW6bn ($4.4mn) in H1/2024, three times the KRW2bn recorded for the same period in 2023. Meanwhile, the hypermarket segment’s operating profit rose 19.7% year-on-year to KRW17bn ($12.5mn).

Lotte Shopping operates three department stores and 16 grocery stores (supermarkets and hypermarkets) in Vietnam. For Q2/2024, Lotte Shopping highlighted sustained high growth in revenue from activities in Vietnam. The department store business recorded revenues of KRW20bn ($14.7mn), up 316% year-on-year; the hypermarket sector earned KRW92bn ($67.4mn), up 7.1%; and its cinema operations (under Lotte Cultureworks) raked in KRW16bn ($11.7mn), up 31.7%. Globally, Lotte Shopping recorded a post-tax loss of KRW7bn ($5.1mn) in H1/2024, while revenues declined 2.4% year-on-year to KRW9,826bn ($7.2bn).