Shinsegae Co., a leading South Korean retail conglomerate, said Tuesday it will bid for a new duty-free store in downtown Seoul and relocate the current shop in the southern port city of Busan to defend the license set to expire this year.
  

Shinsegae said it will apply for the highly competitive bid as three duty-free operating licenses are set to expire within the year. The deadline is set for Friday and the Korea Customs Service will announce the result in November. 
  

(Yonhap)

Currently, Lotte Duty Free, the nation's No. 1 operator, has two stores in Myeongdong, a major shopping district, and the affluent Gangnam region, and SK Networks Co., a trading and hotel unit under SK Group, has a store in the Sheraton Grand Walkerhill Hotel in the southeastern part of the capital.
  

Separately, Shinsegae will renew its operating license for Paradise Duty Free in the southern port city of Busan as its current license also expires in December.
  

"We will propose a multi-complex shopping mall in Myeongdong, the nation's No. 1 tourist attraction," said Sung Young-mok, who is in charge of Shinsegae's duty free business. "For Busan, we will relocate the duty-free shop to Shinsegae Centum City to recreate it as Busan's tourism icon."
  

It is the second bid this year after Shinsegae applied for a new license in May, proposing to renovate its landmark outlet in Myeongdong. The building, established in 1930, was home to the country's first department store.
  

If it wins the bid, the retail giant will be opening its first duty-free store in downtown Seoul.
  

The bid is seen as a major opportunity for local retailers who are in search of new cash cows amid lackluster domestic demand. Duty-free stores have emerged as one of the most lucrative retail channels in tandem with a sharp influx of deep-pocketed shoppers from China.
  

Last year, the six duty-free stores across the capital, mostly dominated by Lotte, posted combined sales of 4.4 trillion won ($4 billion). Sales by a Lotte Duty Free branch in the Myeongdong area accounted for a whopping 45 percent of the total. (Yonhap)