Mexican retailer Walmart de Mexico (Walmex) is mulling the sale of its Vips restaurant business as part of strategy to concentrate on its core retail and grocery business.
Vips restaurant business comprises 364 restaurants, including 265 Vips outlets, 92 El Porton restaurants and seven Ragazzi restaurants.
Walmex's comparable store sales for Mexican outlets dropped 0.5% in the first five months of this year compared to the same period in 2012.
Mexican retail association Antad, in which Walmex is a member, reported a 0.6% growth in same-store sales during the same period.
Vips contributed 1.7% of overall Walmex sales and 1.6% of its EBITDA in last year.
The sale is expected to get the retailer an amount of nearly $600m to $700m, reported Reuters.
Walmex spokesman Antonio Ocaranza was quoted by the news agency as saying that the sale of restaurant arm is being considered in the wake of few potential offers from third parties.
Walmex, however, stated that the sale of restaurant business is at early stages only.
