May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, may expand into Russia to take advantage of its fragmented retail market and sell merchandise more cheaply, Treasurer Charles Holley said.

“It’s an emerging market where there’s not a lot of organized retail,” Holley said today in a telephone interview from Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart’s hometown. “What we have to bring to bear with our merchandise capabilities and pricing and saving people money could play very well in that market.”

Wal-Mart said today international sales tumbled 11 percent to $21.3 billion in the three months through April 30, hurt by the stronger U.S. dollar. Excluding that impact, they rose 9.1 percent.

Mike Duke took over as chief executive officer in February after serving as international chief and engineering acquisitions in Japan and Chile to boost sales outside of the U.S. International revenue accounted for a quarter of Wal-Mart’s sales in the year ended Jan. 31.

Holley, also executive vice president of finance, said Wal- Mart won’t comment on a report last month by Russian newspaper Kommersant that the company has renewed talks on acquiring a 51 percent stake in OOO Lenta, a St. Petersburg-based supermarket operator.

“We’ve made no secret that Russia continues to interest us,” he said, reiterating Wal-Mart comments in past 12 months. Broadly, the company is “interested in filling in our current markets and regions,” he said.

Svetlana Afanasyeva, a spokeswoman for Lenta, today declined to comment on the Kommersant report.

Wal-Mart may be mainly interested in Lenta’s brand recognition and customer loyalty, Neil Currie, a UBS analyst in New York, told clients in an April 7 note.

Acquiring a controlling stake would reflect Wal-Mart’s strategy in recent years of investing in overseas retailers rather than starting operations from scratch, Currie wrote.

Wal-Mart bought a controlling stake in Chilean grocer Distribucion y Servicio D&S SA in January.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Burritt in Greensboro, North Carolina, at cburritt@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 14, 2009 12:32 EDT