Every little helps: Tesco to sell Giraffe chain and Turkish interests in bid to offload underperforming assets
Britain's biggest supermarket chain Tesco is set to sell its Kipa chain in Turkey and Giraffe restaurants in the UK.
The sale of Kipa, that Tesco acquired in 2013, is likely to raise "a couple of hundred million pounds", an analyst told Sky News, while an unnamed family-owned investment group is interested in snapping up Giraffe.
Tesco bought Giraffe in 2013 for £48.6m in a bid to create "retail destinations" for customers. The analyst said that the restaurants business would be "all but given away".
The news comes as Tesco CEO Dave Lewis is trying to sell off the supermarket's loss-making businesses to plug gaps in the balance sheet. In April, Tesco partially offloaded its stake in ecommerce site Lazada to Chinese giant Alibaba.
Read more: Tall order: Bidders to fight it out for loss-making Giraffe
Lewis reportedly is looking for buyers for Harris + Hoole, the chain of coffee shops, and Dobbies, the garden centres business.
Lewis began selling unwanted assets following an accounting error that led the supermarket chain to overstate its profits by £250m. Its accounting scandal is currently being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.
Tesco declined to comment.