Sainsbury's Bank could be sold within weeks for £200million, almost a year after the supermarket put its financial arm up for sale.
The bank has around two million customers and offers savings, loans, insurance, travel money and credit cards. It stopped mortgage lending in 2019.
Sainsbury's put its banking arm up for sale last November, and now Sky News reports that it could soon be bought by US private equity firm Centerbridge Partners for £200million.
Sainsbury's Bank customers should be unaffected by any sale.
Centerbridge most likely wants to buy Sainsbury's Bank to get a UK banking licence - a hard-to-get permit to carry out banking activities.
Current customers of Sainsbury's Bank may not even realise if the firm gets bought, as Centerbridge is likely to keep using the Sainsbury's name and not rebrand.
Sainsbury's declined to comment. Centerbridge has been approached for comment.
Sainsbury's Bank was launched by Bank of Scotland and Sainsbury's in February 1997.
The grocer bought out Bank of Scotland's 50% share in May 2013, becoming the sole owner.
Sainsbury's is not the only supermarket empire undergoing huge changes.
Earlier this month The Mirror reported Morrisons might have to break up if a planned £6.3billion takeover deal goes through.
A sale of Morrisons to private equity owners could trigger a break-up of the supermarket chain, analysts in the City have warned.
The supermarket's management has provisionally greed to a £6.3 billion takeover bid from a consortium of investment groups.
The offer, led by Softbank-owned Fortress which has partnered with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Koch Real Estate Investments, will see shareholders receive 252p per share plus a 2p special dividend.
Meanwhile the new owners of Asda have plans to open more than 300 convenience stores across their petrol station estate after a £6.8billion takeover.
Mohsin and Zuber Issa want to roll out “Asda on the Move” stores in their EG Group forecourts following a successful trial, according to The Sunday Times.
The siblings, who own around 400 petrol stations, have already introduced the new convenience store concept in five of their forecourts.
The first "Asda on the Move" site opened in Walsall in October 2020.
The Issa brothers acquired Asda this year with the private equity firm TDR Capital in a deal that saw the supermarket return to majority UK ownership for the first time in two decades.
