Tesco explores sale of European operations, FT reports
Tesco is reportedly exploring a sale of its central and eastern European operations, in a move that would effectively end its ambitions outside of the UK and Ireland.
According to the FT, the supermarket is working with banks on options for its operations in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
Subscribe to TRBTesco has 531 stores across the three countries and is understood to employ 22,000 people there. Last year, the European division’s revenue was £4.5 billion, but it only generated £115 million of the group’s £3.2 billion adjusted operating profit.
The central and eastern Europe business launched in Hungary in 1995 and is now Tesco’s only sizeable business outside of the UK and Ireland, following the sell-off of most of its international businesses in a series of deals since 2014. These included the sale of the South Korean Homeplus business in 2016 and its Thailand and Malaysia unit in 2020.
Tesco told the FT: “We never comment on rumour or speculation.”
