TWO American private-equity giants are assembling a £6 billion bid for Experian, the business and information-services group that is expected to be demerged from GUS this year.

Hellman & Friedman and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) are in the early stages of putting together an offer and have approached banks about advising on and financing a potential deal.

The two buyout specialists are keen to sign up other private-equity firms to join them in writing what would amount to one of the largest leveraged-buyout cheques ever signed in Britain.

A recent Deutsche Bank research note suggested that a separate American listing for Experian could value the business as high as £6.8 billion.

Sources close to the discussions were cautious, pointing out that a firm bid for Experian might not materialise from private-equity groups and that any formal offer to GUS or Experian was still some months away.

However, the news that they are looking to gatecrash the break-up of GUS, which also owns the Argos and Homebase retail chains, will again raise the threshold for the ambitions of buyout firms in Britain.

Hellman & Friedman and KKR are also members of the private-equity consortium bidding for the Dutch business-information group VNU. The other partners in that deal include Blackstone, Carlyle Group, Permira and Thomas H Lee.

GUS, whose chairman, Sir Victor Blank, intends to step down once the demerger is completed, has said that it is looking at ways to break up the company and realise value for shareholders. It has already demerged the Burberry fashion label, which now has a market value of £2 billion.

As revealed by The Sunday Times last week, Blank is to join Lloyds TSB, the high-street bank, as its new chairman.

Experian is a worldwide information-services firm that is best known for providing credit checks on individuals and companies. It employs more than 12,000 people around the world, with main offices in Nottingham and in Costa Mesa, California. It recently bought Clarity Blue, a British customer-management consultancy, for £85m. Last year Experian reported sales of £2.7 billion, the bulk of which was generated in America.

Experian’s management, including its acquisitive chief executive, Don Roberts, will this week attend the Deutsche Bank retail conference, held at Milton Keynes, to update investors on the company’s progress.

Spokesmen for GUS, KKR and Hellman & Friedman all declined to comment.

Separately, investors in one of Britain’s fastest-growing business-information providers could be about to cash in on the current boom in mergers and acquisitions by hiring advisers to explore a possible £150m sale.

The Mergermarket Group, a global provider of information about corporate transactions, was set up seven years ago by three executives who own just under half of the equity. The other 50% is held by two investment firms, New Media Spark and Beringea.

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