Brakes Bros sold for £1.4bn

Bain is believed to have beaten off competition from the Icelandic based group Baugur and former Asda boss Archie Norman among a number of other possible suitors. The deal marks a highly successful and profitable exit for Clayton Dubillier & Rice, which bought the company for £434m five years ago with the founding family's backing and took out a debt repayment of about £275m last year. Brakes is the UK's largest supplier of food to the catering industry, and also owns the nationwide fish distribution business M&J Seafoods. It supplies food to schools, restaurants and large catering companies. In a statement, Brakes chief executive Frank McKay said the company doesn't expect any significant changes to its strategy and that growth in 2007 has been "encouraging".