The investment giant who formerly bid for Aberdeen's Wood Group is reportedly among the potential bidders for Costa Coffee, Britain’s biggest high street coffee chain.

Apollo Global Management, which owns The Restaurant Group, Wagamama’s parent company, has held early-stage talks with Lazard, advisors to the Coca-Cola Company, the owners of Costa, Sky News reports. 

The US private equity firm previously bid for Wood Group two years ago but abandoned the sale after five attempts 

It follows recent reports that Coca-Cola was reviewing options for the coffee chain as it struggled to improve its performance.

Costa trades in about 50 countries, including the UK, where it has more than 2,000 stores.

Analysts believe a sale could amount to a multi-billion pound loss on the £3.9billion sum Coca-Cola paid to buy Costa in 2018. 

FTSE 100

The UK's flagship share index, the FTSE 100, was down 29 points at 9,262 shortly after opening this morning.

Brent crude oil futures were up 0.75% at $66.39 a barrel.

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