Negotiations to sell off Lotte Mart branches in China are facing difficulties.

Concerns are rising a sale will be difficult within the year as it's known that no particular progress has been made in contacts between Goldman Sachs, the lead manager of the sell-off, and five to ten foreign companies that are interested in taking over the Korean supermarket chain in China.

One candidate firm is Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group, which recently took over E-Mart stores in China.

A Lotte official said investors in China and overseas are showing interest in the purchase of Lotte Mart stores in key metropolitan Chinese cities, but negotiations are slow due to wide differences in takeover conditions and the price.

Other pundits say the lackluster negotiations are partly due to the ongoing National Day Golden Week holiday in China. They also say negotiations are poor because now is a politically sensitive time ahead of the meeting of National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on October 18th. 

Lotte Group began the process of selling its retail stores in China last month after bearing the brunt of Beijing's economic retaliation over the deployment of a U.S. THAAD antimissile system in South Korea.

Lotte, which provided the site for THAAD in South Korea, was forced to suspend operations of its large-sized Lotte Mart chain for more than six months, with future prospects looking bleak.