Three private equity consortiums are planning to bid for Tesco's South Korean unit Homeplus, which is valued at over $6bn.
Affinity Equity Partners has partnered with US private equity firm KKR, while Carlyle Group will make a bid along with Singapore's GIC.
MBK Partners will seek equity funding from South Korea's National Pension Service to bid for Homeplus.
The consortiums formed show that deal could become the second-biggest merger in the Asian consumer sector, Reuters reported.
South Korean snack maker Orion had also submitted a preliminary bid for the Korean discount store retail chain, but was not shortlisted.
Homeplus operates hypermarkets and direct management home plus express shops that sell food and non-food products in South Korea. It operates a chain of 106 hypermarkets and 492 direct management home plus express shops.
Tesco hired HSBC to handle the sale of Homeplus.
