Tesco lines up £ 4bn buyer

TESCO is closing in on the sale of its South Korean business in a deal worth over £ 4billion.

The supermarket group is believed to have chosen Asian buyout firm MBK Partners as preferred bidder to buy Homeplus, ahead of rival suitors Affi nity Equity Partners and Carlyle Group. A sale of Homeplus, which swung to a loss of about £ 170million for the year to the end of February compared to a profi t the previous year, will help Tesco reduce its debt.

Tesco entered the South Korean market in 1999 in a joint venture with Samsung, whom it later bought out as it expanded its network to more than 900 stores.