Parkson Retail Group Ltd, a Beijing-based department store chain controlled by Malaysia's Lion Group, will pay 61 million yuan (US$8.1 million) for the remaining shares it doesn't own in a unit in Xi'an.

The Hong Kong-listed retailer will hold 100 percent of Xi'an Chang'an Parkson, a unit in northwest China's province of Shaanxi, after the transaction, the company said in a filing to Hong Kong's stock exchange yesterday. The 49-percent stake will be acquired from venture partner Shaanxi Chang'an Information Property Investment Ltd, it said.

Parkson Retail aims to buy all stakes in its ventures by 2012, Alfred Cheng, chief operating officer of Lion Group, said last month. The company has 11 ventures after announcing it was acquiring the remaining stakes in Anshan Parkson and Mianyang Parkson units in the first half, Bloomberg News reported.

(Shanghai Daily September 29, 2007)