In 2005, E-Land Group became the 37th largest corporation in Korea (excluding SOE's) with assets totaling over US$2 billion. In April 2006, E-Land Group acquired the entire South Korean operations of Carrefour which operated 32 discount stores. Carrefour Korea, despite its global presence and experiences overseas, struggled to understand the local Korean culture. Carrefour was rebranded to Homever by E-Land Group after the acquisition. The acquisition moved E-Land Group from 6th to 2nd largest discount/outlet operators with respect to total number of stores. In 2006, E-Land Group was the second largest retailer in South Korea based on number of stores (Source: Korea Rating). On 14 May 2008, the British retail group Tesco, which already operated in Korea, agreed to purchase 36 hypermarkets with a combination of food and non-food products from E-Land for $1.9 billion (976 million pounds) in its biggest single acquisition, making Tesco the second largest retailer in the country. The majority of the E-Land stores formerly belonged to French retailer Carrefour before 2006 and most of the stores will be converted to Tesco Homeplus outlets. Tesco's South Korean discount store chain, Home Plus, currently has 66 outlets.