The Sunday Times reports that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Hellman & Friedman have approached banks about financing a deal, which would be one of the UK's largest leveraged, or debt-funded, buyouts to date.
Due to the size of the deal, it is expected that the pair would bring in other private equity groups to form a consortium. The two are currently involved in a consortium bid for Dutch business information group VNU, which owns Nielsen//NetRatings.
Experian currently resides within GUS, which also owns Argos and Homebase, and its recent performance has been described by GUS as "exceptional".
Investors have spent years hoping that GUS will demerge Experian, as it recently did with Burberry. GUS was not rushed into a decision, but is now expected to.
It declined to comment to the Sunday Times, but the paper reported industry sources as saying GUS was in the early stages of planning a deal with the private equity houses.
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