Private equity firms KKR & Co, Carlyle Group and CVC Capital
Partners are among the firms Tesco has approached, according to Reuters.
The sale is seen as a way of funding Tesco's turnaround plan after last year's accounting scandal.
It is also seen as the best way to cut debt and reverse losses at home.
The
sale could be Asia's biggest private equity deal, according to Reuters.
It would also be the region's second-largest consumer retail deal ever.
Homeplus
refused to comment to its possible sale. Neither were any of the
private equity firms believed to have been approached by Tesco willing
to comment.
Homeplus is Tesco's largest business outside the UK, with annual revenue of 7.05 trillion won (£4.1bn) in 2014.
It has more than 400 stores, 500 franchise stores and more than six million customers a week.
But
the business operates in a mature and competitive market and has been
under some pressure, recording at least two straight years of declines
in same-store sales.
The sale comes 10 months after Tesco
overstated its half-year profits by £263m, while at the same time
issuing a profit warning that sent shares plunging to an 11 year low.
That
led to an inquiry into accounting practices at the retail giant, which
found discovered more accounting irregularities and led to the
suspension of several senior executives.
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