Tesco Joins Bidding War For Carrefours Asian Assets

Thu, 02 Sep 2010

 
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Tesco has joined the list of companies hoping to acquire the south-east Asian stores of French retail giant Carrefour.

The UK’s largest retailer is one of ten bidders involved in the £650 million auction for Carrefour’s 61 stores across Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia .

Other bidders are thought to include Japanese supermarket group Aeon, Singapore retail group Dairy Farm and France’s Casino Guichard Perrachon.

Tesco already operates a large number of grocery stores in south-east Asia and is keen to expand further; highlighting the region has providing a "significant long-term growth opportunity".

The company currently runs 663 shops in Thailand and 32 in Malaysia and is looking to grow its Malaysian business by 27 per cent this year.

Analysts predicted that Tesco’s aggressive expansive plans will see it overtake Carrefour as the world's second biggest retailer by the end of 2012, with US retailer Wal-Mart expected to keep its number one status.

Despite putting its south-east Asian hypermarkets up for sale, Carrefour said it will remain highly active in China, where it has a large presence, and will continue to operate stores in Indonesia and Taiwan.