(Yicai) Dec. 1 – Shares in Sun Art Retail Group soared today after the Chinese operator of hypermarket chain RT-Mart said that the former head of Hema Fresh, the grocery chain owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings, will take over as its chief executive officer, effective immediately.

Sun Art’s share price [HKG:6808] soared 8.7 percent today to close at HKD1.75 (USD0.22).

Sun Art has signed a three-year contract with Li Weiping, the Hong Kong-based firm said. As CEO, she will receive a fixed annual salary of CNY3.36 million (USD475,000), plus a yearly management bonus.

Li replaces Shen Hui, who served less than two years of a three-year contract and who resigned for personal reasons, the company said. Shen previously served as general manager of the Auchan hypermarket chain, a subsidiary of Sun Art, from February 2016 to May 2017.

47-year-old Li has been in the retail industry for 26 years. She joined Shanghai-based Hema Fresh in 2018 and served in a number of different roles before rising to the rank of CEO. Before that, from June 2007 to August 2018, she was general manager of Lotte Supermarket’s North China division.

Sun Art logged losses of CNY123 million (USD17.4 million) in the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with profit of CNY200 million a year earlier, according to the firm’s earnings report released on Nov. 11. Revenue tumbled 12.1 percent to CNY30.5 billion (USD4.3 billion).

Sun Art operated 462 hypermarkets, 32 medium-sized supermarkets and seven M-member stores as of Sept. 30. Approximately 65 percent of these were leased, while 35 percent belonged to the firm.

Sun Art will accelerate store renovations, it said in its financial report. The company plans to partially or fully revamp more than 30 stores this fiscal year and expects to complete over 200 store upgrades by next fiscal year.

Editor: Kim Taylor