Five PE firms bid for Matalan

Private equity firms TPG, Blackstone, Warburg Pincus, BC Partners, Advent International are the first-round bidders for discount retailer Matalan, which has been valued at £1.5bn.

If the sale is successful, Matalan founder John Hargreaves could make hundreds of millions of pounds of profit.

If Matalan sells for the expected £1.5bn sale price, the value of the company would reach more than 10x earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.