Tesco preps Fresh & Easy for sale to billionaire Burkle

U.K. grocer Tesco has put its U.S. store chain Fresh & Easy into bankruptcy as part of a plan to sell the chain's 167 stores across California, Arizona and Nevada to Ron Burkle's private equity firm Yucaipa. Tesco entered the U.S. Southwest in 2006 just as the region's real-estate market collapsed, and never made a profit on Fresh & Easy, according to its bankruptcy court filing in Delaware. A unit of Tesco will take a 22.5% stake in the Yucaipa affiliate that acquires the grocery store chain.