Istanbul/London, Nov 9 - France's Carrefour has made an initial bid for Turkish supermarket chain Migros, sources familiar with the situation said on Friday, while a Croatian company also said it was in the running.
Carrefour already has a Turkish joint venture with conglomerate Sabanci Holding, Istanbul-listed Carrefoursa, and Sabanci said in August the venture was interested in Migros.
On Wednesday, in response to a press report, the joint venture said it had not bid for Migros. But sources familiar with the situation said that Carrefour had.
Carrefour declined to comment.
A deadline for preliminary bids expired earlier this week and conglomerate Koc Holding <KCHOL.IS, which is selling Migros, told Reuters on Thursday that it had received more than five offers, giving no names.
On Friday Agrokor -- Croatia's biggest food concern with revenues of $3.0 billion and a presence in Bosnia, Serbia and Hungary -- said it had been shortlisted in the bidding.
Meanwhile Turkish food group Ulker said it wanted to buy a 10 percent stake in Migros in a consortium bid.
"There will be a local partner and also there may be a private equity fund," an Ulker official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Business daily Referans reported earlier this week that Turkey's Anadolu Group could join Ulker in a bid.
Referans also said Ahold's unit in Sweden, ICA, was in the bidding, but two sources said Ahold was not.
Migros agreed earlier this year to sell a 50 percent stake in Russian retailer Ramenka to its partner in the venture Enka, which in turn said it was looking to sell the Russian retail business.
One of the sources said France's Auchan had been looking at Migros but had not made a bid and was focusing instead on Ramenka.
Also interested in Migros, according to Koc in September, was Russia's Alfa Group, which is already present in Turkey via a stake in cellphone firm Turkcell.
Turkish food group Kiler has also bid, said another source, but the company declined to comment.
Shares in Migros, which has a market value of around $3.1 billion, rose 1.0 percent on Friday, outperforming a 2.0 percent fall on the main Istanbul index.