Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings is set to buy British sandwich chain Pret A Manger for 1.5 billion pounds, including debt, from its private equity owners, the Financial Times reported late on Monday.
The deal could be unveiled as soon as Tuesday, the report said, citing three unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
Pret's private equity owner, Bridgepoint, bought the chain at the height of the buyout boom in 2008 for 500 million euros.
JAB, the family office of Europe's billionaire Reimann clan, has built up the world's second-largest coffee business over the past five years.
It controls packaged brands such as Kenco and Douwe Egberts; retail chains like Peet's and Espresso House; and Keurig, the leading at-home single-serve brewer system in the United States.
Reuters reported last year that Philippines fast food chain Jollibee Foods Corp was exploring a bid worth over $1 billion for Pret.
Pret A Manger and JAB Holdings did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
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