LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Britain's Home Retail Group HOME.L confirmed the sale of its Homebase chain to Wesfarmers Ltd WES.AX on Monday, and said it would return 200 million pounds ($285 million) of the proceeds to shareholders.
The company, which retains its larger Argos business, said last week it was in advanced talks to sell the chain to the Australian company for 340 million pounds. said on Monday it would spend another A$500 million (242 million pounds) refurbishing the 265 stores. Retail rejected a separate approach from Sainsbury 's SBRY.L for the whole group in November. The supermarket chain, which was mainly interested in Argos, has until Feb. 2 to make a formal bid.
(1 British pound = 2.0702 Australian dollars) ($1 = 0.7005 pounds)