Lotte sells retail operator in China to Wumei for $230 million

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's Lotte Shopping said on Thursday that it has agreed to sell one of its six operators of hypermarket and supermarket stores in China to Wumei Holdings for about 248.5 billion won ($230.2 million).

Last year, Lotte Shopping picked Goldman Sachs to manage the sale of its Lotte Mart stores in China, after most of them were shut down amid political tensions between the two countries. The retailer had aimed for the sale by the end of last year.

The group was particularly hard hit by the political fallout of its decision to hand over land for a U.S.-made missile defence system despite Chinese opposition.

In October, Seoul and Beijing agreed to move past the dispute.

Lotte Shopping did not elaborate on whether there was progress on the sales of its remaining five Lotte Mart operators in China.

($1 = 1,079.5000 won)

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates)