Supermarket sweep for Russian retail giant

Russia's largest retail group, X5, is to buy 22 Karusel hypermarkets and a number of other sites for future stores.

The Kommersant business daily reports that the deal is worth around $US 950 million.

It would be the biggest buy the company has made and is expected to be finalised next week. 

X5 is funding the acquisition with capital raised in an additional share issue in May.

Karusel founder and the X5 group shareholder Andrey Rogachev announced the deal will go through “with high probability”.

The firm already owns the Pyaterochka and Perekryostok supermarket chains.