First round offers are due today for specialist retailer HobbyCraft, which is being sold by the founding Haskins family.
Several private equity firms are understood to have indicated their interest, including Bridgepoint, Graphite, Lloyds Capital Development and Silverfleet. HobbyCraft is expected to fetch about £70m and existing management, led by chief executive Chris Crombie, hope to stage a buy-out.
Motor accessories specialist Halfords is also likely to make an offer, according to the Financial Times, but may withdraw if there is intense competition because it does not want to pay too heavy a premium.
In its last financial year HobbyCraft made a pre-tax profit of £5.4m on sales of £68.7m.
The retailer aims to increase store numbers fourfold from 48 to 180.
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