Iglo Group was put up for sale in March after its private equity owner Permira received unsolicited expressions of interest from several companies.
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has been hired to handle the auction of the business, which is valued between €2.5bn and €2.9bn, round eight or nine times the company's Ebitda, which will make the deal one of the biggest private equity transactions of 2012.
Permira acquired Iglo from Unilever for €1.7bn in 2006. In 2010, the equity firm expanded the Iglo operations further by acquiring Findus Italy from Unilever for €800m and combining it with Iglo.
