CHINA: China Resources Enterprise, the retail and food & drink manufacturing conglomorate, has revealed it is considering opening supermarkets in Shanghai for the first time. The state-owned company, which operates more than 2,600 stores across China, operates in a wide variety of sectors including property, fashion and distribution as well as food retail. According to reports, chief financial officer Frank Lai said the company hadn't decided whether to enter Shanghai via an acquisition or by opening its own stores.

BULGARIA: Rewe Group has opened 14 Penny stores in Bulgaria, the first of 20 it hopes to have trading by the end of the year. The group said it would create up to 700 jobs by taking the discounter into the new market and would tailor its offer by stocking 50% Bulgarian products. The stores will be supplied from a distribution hub in Stolnik near Sofia. There are more than 3,500 Penny discount stores across Europe in Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

FRANCE: Carrefour has appointed José Carlos Gonzalez-Hurtado to the newly created role of chief commercial officer. He has joined from P&G where he was head of Braun globally, having spent 20 years at the company. At Carrefour, he will run the marketing department, and two commercial divisions covering products and store formats will also report to him.

Carrefour said the new position reflected chief executive Lars Olofsson's "determination to strengthen customer focus, enrich the brand and better disseminate innovations and best practices throughout the group".

RUSSIA: The X5 Retail Group has completed the acquisition of supermarket chain Paterson, in a deal worth $265m, after the Russian anti-monopoly service gave the go-ahead last month. Paterson is a privately owned retail chain of 82 supermarkets in Moscow, St Petersburg and several other cities in western Russia.

Meanwhile X5 has refinanced a major loan that was due in December 2010. Russia's biggest retailer said OAO Sberbank had provided a five-year credit line for up to $1.1bn. "For X5, it secures a means for refinancing our syndicated loan a year before we need it," said chief executive Lev Khasis.

INDIA: Aditya Birla Retail, the country's second-biggest supermarket company, is planning to float, Indian press reports have suggested. The move will happen if, as predicted, the retailer becomes profitable in the next few years.

"We will definitely be open to an IPO but it will be closer to the time of profitabillity about 2012 or maybe even before that," chief executive Thomas Varghese told Press Trust of India. "We want to get the maximum value for the equity we have, and that we will get only when we are able to show profitability and also demonstrate our long-term growth potential," he said.

The company operates more than 650 supermarkets across the country.