Korea’s largest private equity MBK Partners is mulling to sell five outlets of Homeplus and lease them back to help repay loans that funded the acquisition of the retailer last year, local news reports said.

In October last year, MBK acquired 100 percent stake in Homeplus from British giant retailer Tesco for 7.2 trillion won ($6.1 billion) in a consortium with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Public Service Pension Plan of Canada, and Temasek Holdings. To fund the acquisition, MBK borrowed 4.3 trillion won from financial institutions.


The five outlets of Homeplus put up for sale are in Gahwa, Gimpo, Gimhae, Dongdaemun and Suwon, sources said. Adding that Standard Chartered Securities Korea has been selected as manager of the sales.

The brokerage’s spokesperson declined to comment.

MBK is reportedly considering the sale and leaseback to raise about 600 billion won to 700 billion won in cash, while local and foreign real estate funds are cited as possible bidders.

Homeplus, the nation’s second largest supermarket chain, has raised a total of 1.3 trillion won by selling eight outlets and one logistics center in sales and leaseback arrangements since 2012.

Hompeplus has 140 large supermarkets, 375 smaller outlets under the name Homeplus Express and eight logistics centers in Korea.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)