A man passes a Lawson convenience store in Shanghai. Photo: CFP

By Zhu Jialei

Japan's second-largest convenience store chain, Lawson, may buy out its Chinese mainland partner's share in its local operations to become the first convenience store brand in the city to be wholly-owned by a foreign company.

A source close to the issue told the Oriental Morning Post Tuesday  that Lawson will buy State-owned Bailian Group's 51 percent stake in Shanghai Hualian Lawson Co Ltd, the joint-venture established by the pair in 1996.

No one from either Lawson or Bailian was available to comment on the issue Tuesday .

"As the Shanghai government is encouraging State-owned companies to improve their competitiveness by restructuring, it is reasonable for Bailian to sell off its ownership in the joint venture," Xu Guoxiang, director of the Research Center for Applied Statistics of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times Tuesday .

Bailian also owns convenience chain store Quik, which has about 1,300 branches in the city.

"If the Japanese company takes over the ownership of Lawson, it will give it more freedom to pursue its expansion plans, thereby challenging the business of other convenience stores in Shanghai and heightening competition," Xu said.

Lawson opened Shanghai's first 24-hour convenience store in 1996 in Gubei, Changning district, through its joint venture with Hualian. The company now operates 325 stores in the city.

Takeshi Niinami, president of Lawson, has previously said that the company intends to raise the number of its stores on the Chinese mainland to as many as 10,000 over the next 10 years.

Lawson opened its first wholly-owned convenience store on the Chinese mainland in Chongqing Municipality on April 29, 2010.