(Reuters) – Fortress Investment Group is plotting a 5 billion pound ($6.8 billion) takeover of Britain’s petrol stations giant Motor Fuel Group (MFG), Sky News reported on Saturday.
The U.S.-based private equity firm is lining up advisers to work on a bid for MFG, the report said, citing unidentified sources close to the process.
SoftBank-owned Fortress and MFG did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.
Last year, MFG’s owner Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), a U.S. private equity group, had beat Fortress to buy supermarket group Morrisons in an auction. The 7 billion pound takeover is now under British competition regulator’s investigation to review if the takeover will reduce choice for supermarket customers in UK.
In December, Fortress said it would acquire Punch Pubs & Co, which operates about 1,300 pubs in the UK.
($1 = 0.7358 pounds)
(Reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Mike Harrison)
