Tesco is said to be in talks to sell up to £600m of property to Topland, the private property group run by Sol Zakay, through the sale and leaseback of its stores.

According to a report in The Times, the deal could involve Tesco selling about 30 stores into a joint venture company. The paper added that the supermarket was keen to raise the money because its balance sheet has come under pressure.

A spokesman told the paper that the supermarket had not officially picked a preferred party to buy its stores.

The news comes in the wake of the £773m Tesco raised through a share issue earlier this month, partly to pay for a roll-out of its Tesco Express format.

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