Tesco Plc, the largest UK food retailer, may buy a 50 percent stake in 25 hypermarkets in China, where it lags Carrefour SA and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, people familiar with the plan said.

　　Ting Hsin International Group, controlled by four Taiwanese brothers, hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co to find a buyer for the stake, the sources said, asking not to be identified. The final size and price hasn't been determined, they said.

　　Cheshunt, England-based Tesco derived 25 percent of its sales from outside the United Kingdom in the last half year, more than doubling the proportion in the year-earlier period. It doesn't have stores in China, where Carrefour, Europe's biggest retailer, had the fifth-largest share of last year's US$554 billion in sales.

　　"China is the most rapidly growing market for a lot of industries," said Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd in Hong Kong, which advises businesses on investing in Asia. "You can't stand on the sidelines. Everyone is looking for a China play."

　　In January, Tesco raised 781.2 million pounds (US$1.43 billion) selling new shares to fund purchases and open more outlets.

　　"We haven't made any secret about our interest in China and we are talking to several possible partners," Peter Bracher, a spokesman for Tesco, said in a telephone interview. "We are deliberately being very cautious about China and we are quite happy to take our time." He declined to elaborate.

　　Dorothy Lee, a spokeswoman for J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong, declined to comment. Calls to Wei Ying Chiao, chairman of Ting Hsin's hypermarket business, Hymall, were not returned. Vincent Chan, special assistant to chairman Wei, did not return calls.

　　Hymall has 25 stores in China, said Gu Wei, a general manager at the retailer in Shanghai. The shops are also known by the name Le Gou, meaning happy shopping in Chinese, with 10 located in Shanghai, the nation's largest commercial center.

　　China's retail sales grew 11 percent in December, the biggest gain in 2.5 years. Chinese consumers bought 4.58 trillion yuan (US$554 billion) of clothes, cars, phones and other goods last year.

　　(Bloomberg News)