Offers must be made by April 13
The takeover watchdog has set a deadline of April 13 as the latest date a private equity consortium can make an offer for supermarket Sainsbury's. Otherwise it will have to announce it does not intend to proceed with its bid plans.

Private equity firms CVC Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Blackstone and TPG - confirmed as a member of the consortium - said they were at the preliminary stages of assessing an offer, in a statement to the stock exchange last month.

If a bid for the grocer goes ahead, it would be the largest leveraged buyout in Europe.

Cinven had been in talks with Texas Pacific for a rival consortium bid, estimated at about£10 billion. However, Texas Pacific subsequently joined the CVC-led group, and left Cinven without a partner.

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