SUPERMARKET giant Tesco is negotiating to take a #12m stake in

Hungarian food shops group Global.

The UK firm will subscribe for shares in the flotation of Global,

which operates 43 stores in North-west Hungary, and take a stake of

around 45% if negotiations succeed.

Tesco has been looking to expand into eastern Europe for some time and

has chosen Hungary as it has moved furthest towards a market economy.

It has already been providing technical and operational advice to

Global for the past two years and a Tesco executive has been working in

Hungary for some months.

Flotation of the Hungarian firm, which had sales of #25m last year and

made pre-tax profits of #1m, is expected in mid-April.