Whereas Britain's Tesco has become the country's biggest grocery chain, Carrefour lies in a distant fourth place.

Potential buyers are said to include Tesco and Casino, a French firm that already has a Thai joint venture, Big C. Analysts reckon that Carrefour's stores could fetch up to $1 billion.

Carrefour's presence in Thailand is similarly modest.

Across the border in Malaysia it trails well behind Tesco and two other foreign retailers.

And so, with a Gallic shrug, Carrefour is closing up shop in much of South-East Asia. Its 44 stores in Thailand, 23 in Malaysia and two in Singapore are for sale.

When the firm found out that Thai shoppers traveled for miles by bus to its "big-box" stores, it opened smaller stores in rural towns.

Carrefour was one of the first foreign grocers to open shops in South-East Asia in the 1990s. But the later-arriving Tesco proved cannier in figuring out what consumers wanted.

Toby Desforges, founder of Engage, a marketing consultancy, calls this the "take it or leave" pressure from activist shareholders to reverse the firm's global expansion and focus on Europe.

Carrefour focused on Bangkok's higher spenders and stuck to its hypermarket format.

Thailand's modern retail sector is growing rapidly despite the country's political turmoil. The same is true of Malaysia.

As incomes rise, more shoppers will opt to drive to large, air-conditioned stores. Some might even develop a taste for French cheese.

For all that, Carrefour's retreat from South-East Asia may be ill-timed. Compared with Europe, the region's economy is buoyant.

Mr. Olofsson has said he prefers to leave markets where Carrefour is not one of the top two retailers or has little hope of becoming one.