Tesco has picked private equity firm MBK Partners as preferred bidder to purchase its South Korean unit for as much as $6.6 billion, sources said, as the British supermarket retreats from overseas and focuses on revitalising its domestic business.The sale of Homeplus, its biggest overseas unit, would be the first large divestment by Tesco boss Dave Lewis. He is seeking to cut debt and lose the firm's "junk" credit rating status after its profits were battered by an accounting scandal and British market share losses to discounters Aldi and Lidl.In what would be the largest-ever private equity deal in Asia, MBK bid around 7.8 trillion won ($6.61 billion), one of the sources told Reuters. Another source, while not confirming the exact amount, said MBK's bid price had gone "higher than expected" as the bidding process continued.Seoul-based MBK, one of the largest Asia-based private equity firms, beat offers from a consortium of takeover firms Affinity Equity Partners and KKR & Co, as well as from Carlyle Group LP, people with direct knowledge of the process said.
Shares of CG fell by 1.39% or $-0.28/share to $19.88. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $19.71 and as high as $33.28. On average, 880523 shares of CG exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 322378.
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