South Korean retail giant Lotte has decided to sell about 50 of its Lotte Mart stores in Shanghai and Jiangsu Province, effectively pulling out of the Chinese market after eleven years in business.

According to Lotte Group on Friday, Lotte Shopping will hold a board meeting during the day to approve the sale of about 50 Lotte Mart stores in the region to Chinese retail giant Liqun Group for around 280 billion won.

The stores subject to the sale are about 50 of 74 Lotte Mart outlets in Shanghai and Jiangsu Province. 

Last month, Lotte Mart announced it would sell 21 of its stores in Beijing to Chinese local retailer Wumei Holdings for 248-point-five billion won in the first step toward withdrawing from the Chinese market.

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