Tesco has sold Homeplus, its South Korean unit, for £4.2bn. The retailer entered the country in 1999, and is now offloading the so-called "jewel in its crown" to a private-equity consortium led by MBK Partners. It marks Asia's biggest private-equity-backed deal to date. Tesco is grappling with over £20bn of debt (including pension obligations) and last year reported a loss of £6.2bn.
What the commentators said
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