TOKYO, March 5 (Reuters) - Japan's Trial Holdings

said on Wednesday it would spend 382.6 billion yen

($2.55 billion) to acquire the Seiyu supermarket chain

controlled by U.S. private equity fund KKR.

Trial said in a release it would use existing cash and newly

arranged bank borrowings to purchase Seiyu and make it a wholly

owned subsidiary.

KKR bought a 65% stake in Seiyu from Walmart ( WMT ) in 2021, before

acquiring an additional 20% stake from Rakuten in 2023, the fund

said in a separate release. Walmart ( WMT ) will also sell its 15% stake

to Trial, KKR said.

Major retailers including Aeon and Don

Quijote-owner Pan Pacific International Holdings were

other bidders for Seiyu, the Nikkei newspaper reported last

month.

($1 = 149.8100 yen)

(Reporting by Rocky Swift and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by

Muralikumar Anantharaman)