Brake Bros, the UK's largest supplier of food to the catering industry, has been bought by US private equity group Bain Capital for an estimated £1.4 billion.
Bain faced and beat stiff competition from a consortium of Blackstone and Aurigo, as well as UK private equity groups CVC and Cinven.
The deal marks a profitable exit for Brakes' current private equity owner Clayton Dubillier & Rice, which bought the company for £434 million five years ago with the founding family's backing and took out a debt repayment of about £275m last year.
CD&R invested £175m of equity in the original deal. Brakes' revenues have grown 14 per cent and its profits by close to 70 per cent over the past five years.
It has grown organically and through acquisition, posting profit before interest tax and depreciation of £109m on sales of £1.67bn last year.
Brakes has a 14 per cent market share in the UK and is in the top three in France.
