By Saeed Azhar

SINGAPORE- French retailer Casino has hired Deutsche Bank and RBS to advise it on a potential bid for Carrefour's Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand assets, two sources told Reuters.

Carrefour has put up its Southeast Asian assets for sale at a potential price of $1 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. It wants to sell its units in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand and focus on core markets where it holds leading positions.

Casino "is serious about" bidding for the Carrefour business, said one of the sources with knowledge of the deal.

The sources asked not to be named because the deal is not public.

Casino Group, Deutsche and RBS declined to comment.

Casino is France's fifth-ranked food retailer behind Carrefour, Leclerc, Intermarche and Auchan.

On Thursday, Casino posted forecast-beating first-half profits and kept its 2010 financial goals as strength in emerging markets like Brazil offset weakness at home.

First-round bids for the Carrefour assets are due in early September, sources familiar with the deal said.

Leading Thai conglomerate Berli Jucker said earlier this month it was keen to bid for Carrefour's Southeast Asian operations.

Casino owns 36 pct in Thailand's Big C Supercentre chain, the country's second-largest hypermarket operator in terms of the number of stores after British-owned Tesco Lotus.

As of Dec 31, 2009, Big C had 97 stores in Thailand.

Singapore-listed Dairy Farm, which owns Cold Storage and Giant superstores in Singapore and Malaysia, and Britain's Tesco are also seen as potential bidders, sources said.

Tesco and Dairy Farm have declined to comment.

Goldman Sachs and UBS are advising Carrefour on the deal, sources have told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon in Paris; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)