There seems little prospect of the Tesco Thailand business – trading as tesco Lotus – being sold or scaled back in the wake of the British JV partner’s sale of its South Korean Homeplus business last week.

Tesco PLC is under intense pressure to reduce debt and improve its trading profit, a goal which received a significant boost last week with the US$6 billion sale of the Homeplus business.

Tesco Lotus operates some 1400 stores in Thailand, 1100 of them Express outlets, essentially oversized convenience stores, the balance hypermarkets.

The company said in a statement that it has confidence in the Thai market’s growth prospects and planned to continue with expanding its store network.

Early this year the company projected it would open 50 new Express format stores in 2015 and five new hypermarkets.

Meanwhile, an “industry source” told the Bangkok Post newspaper following the Homeplus sale that it was unlikely Tesco would sell its stake in Tesco Lotus.

“I don’t think the Thai operation will be sold, as it is healthy and profitable with a lot of market potential and expansion,” the source said.