French retail giant Carrefour has made a non-binding offer to buy Russian food retailer Seventh Continent.

A banking source working with Carrefour told Reuters: “Carrefour is talking to Deutsche Bank about buying the entire stake of (Seventh Continent’s main owner) Alexander Zanadvorov, which the bank has as collateral against a loan.”

Another source close to the bank confirmed Carrefour had made an offer to buy the stake – thought to be 74.8 per cent of the business - and help Zanadvorov pay back $560m in debts to Deutsche Bank.

According to Russian reports, Carrefour may make a final offer for the stake within the next month.