Tesco has reportedly lodged a €200 million (£143.7 million) bid to acquire a chain of discount stores in the Czech Republic.

The potential move to buy the Plus Discount business, owned by German retailer Tengelmann, would take Tesco into the convenience store sector in the Czech Republic and make them the largest grocery retailer in the Eastern European country.

Tesco runs a total of 93 hypermarkets and supermarkets in the Czech Republic, covering four million sq ft of selling space – nearly a fifth of its floor space in the UK.

A bid for the Plus Discount chain would fit into Sir Terry Leahy’s ambition of seeing Tesco’s international operation generate half of the group’s overall revenue within the next 10 years.

Newspaper reports in the Czech Republic said that other retailers, including Penny Market, Interspar and Schwarz – which operates Lidl stores – were also interested.

Tesco declined to comment. A Tengelmann spokesman would only say that the group was “trying” to sell the Plus Discount chain and that it hoped to conclude a deal by January.

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