Bridgepoint, the pan-European private equity firm, has made a £40m (€57.6m) recommended cash offer to take private Safestore, a UK storage provider, after the largest shareholder pushed a sale to liquidate its stake.

Bridgepoint was advised by PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance. The independent directors of Safestore appointed Investec to open a bidding process after Soros Real Estate Investors, a European property investment firm set up by George Soros, the international financier, said it wanted to liquidate its 25% stake. Safestore was the only exposure the Soros fund had to the public market.