REUTERS

Britain's Morrisons (MRW.L) declined comment on Saturday after a report that private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has made a preliminary bid approach to the supermarket group's board that could value it at 5.5 billion pounds ($7.59 billion).

A spokesperson for Morrisons, based in Bradford, northern England, had no comment on the Sky News report. A spokesperson for CD&R also had no comment.

Morrisons is Britain's fourth-largest grocer by sales, trailing market leader Tesco (TSCO.L), Sainsbury's (SBRY.L) and Asda.

Shares in Morrisons, down 3% over the last year, closed Friday at 182 pence, valuing the group at 4.33 billion pounds.

Sky News reported CD&R has begun approaching banks about financing a potential bid for Morrisons in recent days.

It said a bid could involve Terry Leahy, the former Tesco CEO who is a senior adviser to CD&R.

When at Tesco, Leahy was the boss of Andrew Higginson and David Potts, who are now Morrisons' chairman and CEO respectively.

A bid for Morrisons would follow Walmart's (WMT.N) recent sale of a majority stake in Asda to the Issa brothers and private equity firm TDR Capital.