TOKYO (AFP) — Japan's Fast Retailing, operator of Uniqlo casual clothing shops, is still interested in a US acquisition as part of efforts to build its global business, its head said in an interview pubished Tuesday.
"The US is a difficult market. But (the Uniqlo flagship store in) New York is going well and there is enormous potential in the US," chairman and chief executive Tadashi Yanai told the Financial Times.
"It is very difficult for us to go to the US and be succesful. We are looking to buy a US company and they would help us build a platform," he said.
But he reportedly dismissed rumours that he was looking at Saks, saying he did not want to buy a "pure department store".
The Japanese company dropped out of the bidding war in August for the prestigious Barneys New York department store, declining to match a 942-million-dollar offer from Dubai investment firm Istithmar.
It will open a flagship Uniqlo store on Oxford Street in London on Wednesday and a shop one month later in Paris' La Defense business district.
Yanai also reiterated his ambitions to expand in China and India.
Fast Retailing has set a goal of doubling its global sales by 2010 through expansion both in Western cities and in Asia to compensate for slack growth in Japan.
The operator of Uniqlo, often referred to as the Japanese equivalent of Gap, has set its sights on overtaking global casual wear leaders such as Spain's Zara and Sweden's Hennes and Mauritz.
Uniqlo flourished during Japan's decade-long slump in the 1990s by selling cheap yet good quality clothing, mainly manufactured in China, as years of deflation made Japanese consumers more frugal.
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