Tesco bids for the Asian assets of Carrefour Asian shops

Tesco, the UK's leading supermarket, this week entered the bidding war for the south-east-Asian assets of Carrefour, the French hypermarket giant. The British firm, the world's third-biggest retailer by sales, was joined in the first round by least 10 other bidders for the 61 stores in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore that Carrefour has put up for sale for between $800m and $1bn. In addition to private equity firms, confirmed bidders include the Singaporean group Dairy Farm and the Japanese specialist Aeon.

Tesco, which declined to comment, is thought to want all 40 shops in Thailand, 19 in Malaysia and two in Singapore, although other parties wish to cherry-pick stores in certain countries. Tesco, which is the market leader in Thailand and Malaysia, operates in 14 countries and grew underlying profits by 10.1 per cent to £3.4bn for the year to 27 February. Carrefour is seeking to exit countries where it has limited prospects of becoming the top grocery retailer.