Advent in talks to buy 50% of Wal-Mart's Brazilian unit: Report

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Private equity firm Advent is in talks to buy 50 percent of Wal-Mart Stores Inc's (NYSE:WMT) operations in Brazil, according to a report in Brazil's O Globo newspaper on Sunday.

Wal-Mart operates in 18 Brazilian states with 471 stores, according to the company's local website. The company's Brazilian unit reported revenues of almost 30 billion reais ($9.39 billion) in 2016.

Efforts to reach Advent's local office in Sao Paulo and press representatives of Wal-Mart in Brazil on Sunday were unsuccessful.

O Globo did not provide a source or any details on the state of the talks or possible value of an eventual deal.

Retail sales in Brazil are starting to recover from a two-year recession. Christmas sales were 5.6 percent higher than a year ago, according to credit data supplier Serasa Experian.

(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Paul Simao)