Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Wendel Investissement are set to make Continental Europe's biggest ever buy-out after their €3.7bn ($3.6bn) bid for Legrand was granted exclusivity by Schneider Electric, the French group.

The deal would be the second largest ever in Europe as a whole, according to Andrew Burrows, a director at the Centre for Management Buy-Out Research. The largest to date was the £3.5bn (€5.4bn) acquisition of MEPC, a UK property company, in 2000.