
All told, Liverpool has added over 900,000 square meters of retail space to its portfolio since July 1 2016. The Ripley deal adds an additional 43 stores in Chile (276,080 sqm) and 27 stores in Peru (177,799 sqm), per company filings. With the purchase of Suburbia, Liverpool adds the 119 Suburbia outlets to its existing store network, which includes Liverpool’s 193 retail outlets in Mexico as of the close of 2015. The Suburbia acquisition is Liverpool’s second major deal in the past two months, following the early July purchase of Chilean department store chain Ripley. The acquisition further consolidates Liverpool’s position as one of the biggest national retailers in Mexico during a year of exceptional retail sales growth and overall economic stability, and further advances Walmart’s efforts to refocus on its core business and growing online sales.

Other potential candidates rumored to be interested in Suburbia included Mexican chains Coppel and Sears (operated in Mexico by Grupo Sanborns), as well as Chile-based multinational retailer Falabella. The purchase ends months of speculation as to who would be the new owner of Suburbia after Walmart announced in January that it was seeking a buyer for the retail chain, which had 119 outlets as of the purchase, all located within Mexico. Mexican department store company El Puerto de Liverpool SAB de CV announced on August 10 that it has acquired the retail chain Suburbia from Wal-Mart de México SAB de CV for a total of Mx$19,000 million (approximately US$1 billion), pending review by Mexican regulatory agencies.
