Advent International, which sold Poundland for £200m in 2010, has teamed up with two private equity firms – Hellman & Friedman and Mid Europa Partners to prepare a bid for Pepco that could value it at more than £3.8bn, according to Sky News.

The retailer, which trades under the brands Pepco and Dealz in a dozen Eastern European countries, has more than 2,700 stores in the region.

It rebranded from Pepkor Europe in September 2019 and announced it planned to open 300 stores across the twin fascias a year.