Murphy will join the DIY retailer in January having completed negotiations with Francis Mackay, Kingfisher's chairman, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph.
He takes over from Sir Geoff Mulcahy, who has been with the retail group for 20-years. Kingfisher owns DIY store B&Q and electrical retailer Comet.
On taking over Murphy will oversee the second stage of the group's ongoing demerger. Having already spun off Woolworths, Kingfisher is now preparing to demerge its electrical retail business, which includes Comet, Darty in France and ProMarkt in Germany.
Murphy was also linked to the chief executive's job at media group Emap. He was first linked to the job in July prior to the 拢2.6bn ITV merger being announced.
However, Carlton quickly denied reports saying "he has not agreed to an offer from Kingfisher or anyone else. He is fully occupied with Carlton".
His exit was seen as a certainty following the recent announcement of the merger between Carlton and Granada. There was no mention of any future role for him and the top two jobs of chairman and chief executive were allocated to Carlton chairman, Michael Green, and Granada chairman Charles Allen respectively.
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