The rumor that Sirena and Walmart were in negotiations was because one of the sons or grandsons of Walton was seen in Santo Domingo hanging out with several people from the owners of Sirena. Many people don’t equate that if you are like Sirena owners who do attend supermarket trade shows in the USA, you will run into American owners of top American supermarkets and companies like Walmart which devotes a section to selling foods. It’s also a given that you will befriend some of them and others you know who they are but remain distant.
It also didn’t help that Sirena began to adopt certain practices of Walmart, but that was more copying Walmart than Walmart actually buying Sirena. The value of Grupo Ramos at that time was used as the potential amount it was sold for (US$700 million).
There gave been many rumors of major Dominican companies being bought by foreign ones. In some cases it was true (CODETEL, now Claro) and in other cases it wasn’t (Banco Popular).
