UK retail giant Tesco has indicated that it could be interested in the Carrefour stores in Thailand and Malaysia that are reported to be up for sale.
Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy told the Financial Times that Carrefour outlets could be brought into the UK firm’s local operations – but any deal depended on price.
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“It makes sense in the sense that they’re in-country acquisitions,” Sir Terry told the FT. “But it depends on price always, and so there have been occasions where we have bought those [stores], like the Homever businesses [the South Korean chain bought from Carrefour in 2008] and occasions when we haven’t, like the Giant business in Poland.”
Sir Terry’s comments come days after it was reported that French retailer Casino had hired Deutsche Bank to advise the business on whether it should bid for the Carrefour outlets in the two countries and in Singapore.
Speculation has surrounded Carrefour’s future in the three Asian markets since early last month.
However, Carrefour issued a statement on 9 July to deny that it plans to close any outlets in Malaysia and Singapore, although the company made no mention of its stores in Thailand.
Nevertheless, the statement failed to prevent speculation abounding that Carrefour could sell stores in the region to focus on markets in Europe and other emerging markets like Brazil and China.
