Wal-Mart beats back at Wanguo's accusation

Updated: 2011-11-08 16:43

By Zhi Yun (chinadaily.com.cn)

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Wal-Mart beats back at Wanguo's accusation

Wal-Mart ranks high in the world's top 500 enterprises.[Photo/CFP] 

After being reported of refusing to pay rent for 10 years despite court orders, Wal-Mart made some clarifications over the issue.

Dalian Wal-Mart was accused by one of its landlords, Dalian Wanguo Shopping Plaza, of defaulting the rent for 10 years, making the arrear amount to about 100 million yuan.

However, according to a clarification letter Wal-Mart sent to chinadaily.com.cn, Dalian Wanguo never provided money to establish the superstore for Wal-Mart. Instead, Wal-Mart paid Wanguo a deposit of about 23 million yuan for the launching of the construction program.

Moreover, Dalian Wal-Mart has never been able to use the space that had been promised to them because Wanguo failed to deliver the finished project. Therefore, no rental charges have generated for Dalian Wal-Mart.

According to No 0168 arbitral decision made by China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), provided to chinadaily.com.cn by Wal-Mart, Wanguo has broken the law by failing to deliver the completed construction in time. Wanguo's request of receiving Wal-Mart's compensation for rental loss was also rejected by the commission.

Wal-Mart also claimed in the clarification letter that it had already terminated the contract with Wanguo in 2007 with no objections from Wanguo.

However, according to Wanguo side of the story, Wall-Mart's application of terminating the contract was rejected by CIETAC as the commission found that Wanguo's failing to deliver the completed construction was caused by Wal-Mart itself as it refused to cooperate with Wanguo during the construction process.

And after that Wal-Mart also refused to fulfill its obligation according to the contract, even forced by the CIETAC.

Wal-Mart is now trying to solve the remaining issues through legal proceedings.