Bids roll in for Carrefour's SE Asian stores: report

British and Japanese retail giants, along with local operators, are in a bidding war to take over the Southeast Asian business of French supermarket chain Car-refour, reports said Thursday.

Britain's Tesco is among more than 10 bidders for Carrefour's assets in the region, which total 61 stores in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, the Financial Times (FT) said.

Singapore-based retail group Dairy Farm and French retailer Casino are also in the bidding, the FT said.

Company executives from Carrefour Singapore and Dairy Farm were not immediately available for comment.

Dow Jones newswires reported that another Singapore retailer, NTUC FairPrice, as well as Malaysia-based private equity group Navis Capital, had placed bids for Carrefour assets in the two countries.

NTUC FairPrice declined to comment. Executives from Navis Capital's head office in Kuala Lumpur were also unavailable for comment.

Japan's Aeon group also declined to comment on a report in the Nikkei business daily that said it hoped to expand into Southeast Asia via the Carrefour auction.

Aeon acquired Carrefour's Japanese operations in 2005, five years after Carrefour entered Japan.

The FT said Carrefour has no intentions to abandon China, which accounts for 70 percent of its stores in Asia.

Source: Global Times