Salim's unit to expand supermarket chain

Salim's unit to expand supermarket chain

SINGAPORE (Bloomberg): QAF Ltd., a Singapore food company
controlled by Indonesia's Salim group, expects to top analysts'
estimates for 1999 profit, and plans to expand its supermarket
chain in the city state and elsewhere in Asia.

QAF, which makes bread under the Gardenia brand and operates
the Shop N Save chain of supermarkets in Singapore, is expected
by analysts to have earned 4.1 cents a shares last year.

"We should do very much better than (that)," Managing Director
Tan Kong King said in an interview.

He said sales from the company's 25 Shop N Save supermarkets
in Singapore -- which accounts for half of total sales -- will
likely rise 30 percent in the year ended December, boosted by
renewed consumer spending.

Stronger earning will enable QAF to push plans for expanding
its supermarket business in Singapore and elsewhere.

To tap rising demand, QAF is planning to open up to six new
supermarkets in Singapore this year. It will shut by March, its
unprofitable outlet at the Suntec City shopping mall near the
island's business district, he said.

The company, which doesn't yet operate supermarkets outside
Singapore, plans to make forays into markets such as the
Philippines, Indonesia and China with Belgium's largest retailer
Delhaize-Le Lion SA, which owns a 49 percent stake in Shop N
Save, Tan said, declining to provide details.

QAF's profit before a charge in 1998 was S$10.8 million, or
3.4 cents. Sales rose 7 percent to S$404 million.

Indonesia's Salim group, headed by tycoon Liem Sioe Liong,
owns a 44.2 percent stake in QAF while the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency, or IBRA, holds a 24.3 percent stake.

Tan declined to comment on speculation IBRA was looking to
soon sell its stake in the company.