German retail major Aldi Sud Group has acquired a strategic stake in Philippine hard discounter DALI, confirming DealStreetAsia’s report in June.
DALI will remain independently managed, with the local team continuing to take full operational responsibility, said Aldi Sud Group chief financial officer and member of the executive board Marcus Almeling in a LinkedIn post.
Financial details of the transaction, including the size of Aldi’s stake, were not disclosed. DealStreetAsia’s sources said the deal was likely above $100 million, ranking it among the largest strategic investments in Southeast Asia’s retail sector this year.
“The Philippines is a market with real momentum. We look forward to sharing our knowledge to support DALI’s continued growth so Filipino customers can benefit from high-quality items at low prices,” Almeling said.
DALI, which introduced the hard discounter model to the Philippines in Metro Manila in 2020, has long looked to Aldi as a blueprint for building a mass-market discount retailer. Even the name ‘DALI’ is an anagram of ‘Aldi’.
It operates more than 1,300 stores that serve over one million customers daily.
Aldi, on the other hand, is known for cost-saving practices such as displaying products in shipping cartons, reducing labour and operating costs, allowing it to offer lower prices. It operates more than 7,500 stores across 11 countries.
DALI’s Philippine operating arm, Hard Discount Philippines Inc., reported revenue of nearly 34 billion pesos ($600 million) in 2024, up 52% from 22.3 billion pesos a year earlier.
The company remained loss-making as it continued to invest aggressively in store expansion and infrastructure, posting a net loss of 1.97 billion pesos compared with 1.88 billion pesos in 2023.
