Builder PIK Group, part-owned by billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, said it has held talks with Wal-Mart Stores about locations for the U.S. retailer’s first outlets in the country.
“We’ve had several meetings” with Wal-Mart executives, said Dmitry Ivlyev, a spokesman for PIK. Ivlyev declined to elaborate on those talks, saying only that “no agreement has been reached.”
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, may purchase commercial property from PIK for the smaller stores it plans to open in residential areas, RBC Daily reported Friday, citing unidentified people familiar with Wal-Mart’s plans. Konstantin Dubinin, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, declined to comment.
Wal-Mart is undecided on whether to open stores or buy a chain to enter the Russian market, the company’s chief of international mergers and acquisitions, Kevin Gardner, said June 3. The company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, has grown to 30 employees in Russia since 2008, when it opened an exploratory office in Moscow.