Asia Shift and Strengthening of the ASEAN Business Platform

「AEON announced that Hanaoka Nobutada (花岡伸忠), currently assigned to AEON’s ASEAN business, became president of its Myanmar subsidiary, AEON Orange, effective 21 October.」

「In July, AEON MALL Danang Thanh Khe (Danang City) opened, while preparations proceeded for the opening of AEON MALL Thanh Hoa (Thanh Hoa City) and AEON MALL Ha Long (Quang Ninh Province). By building a dominant presence in northern, central and southern Vietnam, we are working to strengthen our competitive advantage by improving our tenant-leasing capabilities and rolling out operational expertise across locations.」

「The AEON Tan An Shopping Center, which opened in October 2025 in Tay Ninh Province, became fully operational and contributed to expanding the customer base in south-central Vietnam. In mainland China, we designated the inland regions, which have relatively high potential growth rates, as priority areas and held the grand opening in November 2025 of AEON Mall Changsha Xiangjiang New Area in the northern part of Xiangjiang New Area, a national-level new area in Changsha, Hunan Province.」

「In Vietnam, where growth has been particularly strong, we have expanded our business foundation centered on retail and developer operations. By developing a broad footprint from major cities to regional cities, we have continued to expand the business foundation with a view to future growth.」

「During the fiscal year under review, we opened the GMS store AEON Ta Quang Buu (District 8, Ho Chi Minh City), our first store outside AEON Mall facilities, and held the grand opening of AEON MALL Hue (Hue City) in September. In addition, construction began on AEON MALL Thanh Hoa (Thanh Hoa City) in north-central Vietnam and AEON MALL Ha Long (Ha Long City) near Ha Long Bay, a World Heritage site, ahead of their scheduled openings in the second half of 2026.」

「In September, we opened the first large-scale mall in central Vietnam, in Hue Province. ... In March, June and September, we opened new stores in Deltamas, Indonesia; Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China; and Changsha, Hunan Province, China, respectively.」

「We selected areas where market expansion is expected in line with demographics and the development of transport networks, and opened new stores in Deltamas, Indonesia, in March and Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, in June.」

「In November, we opened a new mall in China for the first time in two and a half years, AEON Mall Wuhan Jiangxia (Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei Province).」

「We received the Japan Bank for International Cooperation's first loan to the retail sector and aim to open 30 GMS stores by 2030, while strengthening the rollout of SM and other formats in Vietnam. In July, following Hanoi in northern Vietnam in 2022, we opened an SSM (large-scale supermarket) in Binh Duong New City, located at the center of the major economic zone in southern Vietnam.」

「In Cambodia, where our market share has been steadily expanding, we held the grand opening of AEON Mall Mean Chey on 7 April as an edutainment mall providing entertainment and education for a broad range of age groups.」

「In February 2023, construction began on AEON Mall Hue, the country's seventh store, ahead of its planned opening in the second half of 2024.」

「We are focusing on opening stores in residential areas, with the aim of operating 100 AEON MaxValu stores in 2025.」

「In addition to renovating and reopening AEON Vietnam's first store, we opened 2 supermarkets in November and 3 in January to accelerate the development of the SM business, our second pillar after the GMS business.」

「In Vietnam, our highest-priority area for new store openings, we signed by November a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with four provinces in the country concerning investment and business promotion for shopping mall development, in preparation for securing sites for future stores, and strengthened cooperation with local governments.」

「In China, sales at AEON (HUBEI) CO., LTD., which operates in Wuhan, where COVID-19 first spread last year, recovered to approximately 1.3 times the level of the same period a year earlier during the cumulative second-quarter consolidated period under review. At Qingdao AEON (青島永旺東泰商業有限公司), operating restrictions had also been unavoidable in the tenant areas during the same period a year earlier, but operations resumed and both companies improved their earnings.」

「In Thailand, we signed a joint venture agreement with a local company to establish a new company. Going forward, the new company will use the participating companies' expertise and digital technologies to assess credit risk and provide loans that customers can use with confidence.」

「We regard Asia as a single market, clarify where to deploy the group's management resources, accelerate the shift toward Asia by drawing on the full strength of the group, and continue to capture the growth markets that will keep expanding.」

「In response to these changes in customer behavior, we introduced the AEON app at all stores in China and promoted information and services that leveraged the strength of having physical stores, while also significantly expanding the rollout of self-checkout tills.」

「At AEON CO.(M)BHD., early preparations for the Chinese New Year sales campaign paid off, with January sales substantially exceeding the previous year. In response to restrictions on apparel and home and leisure product sales following the spread of COVID-19, we promoted new initiatives, including a drive-through service allowing customers to collect online orders in store car parks, personal shoppers who shop on customers' behalf, and motorcycle delivery services for delivering ordered products to senior customers.」

「In Vietnam, we opened AEON Mall Ha Dong Store in December, our fifth store in the country. ... These initiatives and others resulted in higher revenue and higher profit for the ASEAN business in the fiscal year under review.」

「In Myanmar, AEON ORANGE COMPANY LIMITED opened AEON ORANGE Thanlyin Sakura Store in southeastern Yangon as its first hypermarket-format store. The sales floor was expanded to approximately three times the size of its existing stores, with one of the region's largest home appliance sections and dining areas added to the delicatessen section.」

「We will focus management resources on areas expected to deliver particularly strong growth, such as Vietnam, with the aim of raising the overseas business's share of operating revenue and operating profit to 50% at an early stage.」

「By region, in addition to improved performance in the international business, growth in overseas operations in other segments, including the integrated financial services and developer businesses, increased the overseas share of operating profit from 11.0% in the same period of the previous year to 19.1%, raising their contribution to consolidated performance.」

「AEON VIETNAM has continued to focus on responding to social events. During Tet, one of the year’s largest sales seasons, sales grew by double digits year on year, supported by gift products. In apparel, the company expanded its range of internally developed products, while in food it strengthened its handling of new categories such as organic vegetables and imported products, resulting in substantial increases in revenue and profit.」

「In December, we announced a medium-term management policy toward Heisei 32, setting out the Group’s transformation through a regional shift, digital shift, Asia shift and corresponding shift in investment. Specifically, to address changes in customers’ food needs and digitalization, we will pursue a No. 1 market share in each region and integrate and reorganize the Group’s supermarket businesses and the food divisions of its general merchandise stores by area. In addition, we will raise Asia’s share of Group operating profit to 23% and increase the ratio of digital sales to 12% by allocating investment, previously focused mainly on stores, more heavily toward IT, logistics and digital capabilities.」

「In June, we concluded a comprehensive memorandum of understanding on investment and business promotion in Hanoi with the People’s Committee of Hanoi, Vietnam. Based on this memorandum, we will strengthen cooperation more than ever to revitalize the city’s economy and promote further regional development through large-scale shopping mall development, retail, finance and services.」

「AEON CAMBODIA, which returned to profitability in the previous fiscal year, opened its first supermarket, AEON Maxvalu Express Russey Keo, in Phnom Penh in March to meet growing consumer demand for modern retail facilities as living standards improve in Cambodia.」

「In the ASEAN region, both AEON VIETNAM and AEON CAMBODIA achieved a return to profitability on an operating basis for the consolidated fiscal year.」

「On 30 September, we opened AEON Orange North Okkalapa, the new company’s first store, in Yangon, the country’s largest city. AEON VIETNAM achieved higher revenue and profit and returned to profitability during the cumulative third quarter of the consolidated fiscal year.」

「As part of the shift to Asia, we established the joint venture Aeon Orange Co., Ltd. with Creation Myanmar Group of Companies Limited, which operates supermarket, specialty-store and real-estate businesses in Myanmar, to accelerate business expansion in the country’s rapidly growing market. In August, we acquired 14 stores from Hypermart, a subsidiary of CMGC, and commenced operations.」

「As part of the shift to Asia, AEON CO.(M)BHD. opened AEON MALL Shah Alam in March in Shah Alam, the capital of Malaysia’s Selangor state, making it one of the largest malls in the country. AEON MALL VIETNAM also worked to strengthen its business platform in ASEAN, including preparations for the July opening of AEON MALL Binh Tan, the Group’s 4th shopping center in Vietnam.」